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MY LIFE
IN ADVERT^Na

;•. . . .•••.•.:•• :• : : ;.
• •. . ::.••.••.•.••-.•

CLAUDE C HOPKINS

HARPER «* BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NBW YORK and latmoH

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v%eF^ce

THIS book is not written as a personal history,
but as a business story. I have tried to avoid
trivialities and to confine myself to matters of in-
structive interest. The chidf object behind every
episode is to offer helpful suggestions to those who
will follow me. And to save them some of the
midnight groping which I did.

One night in Los Angeles I told this story to
Ben Hampton, writer, publisher, and advertising
man. He listened for hours without interruption,
because he saw in this career so much of value to
beginners . He never rested until he had my promise
to set down the story for publication.

He was right. Any man who by a lifetime of
excessive application learns more about anything
than others owes a statement to successors. The
results of research should be recorded. Every pio-
neer should blaze his trail. That is all I have tried
to do.

When this autobiography was announced as a
serial many letters of protest came to me. Some of
them came from the heads of big businesses which
I had served. Behind them appeared the fear that
I would claim excessive credit to the hurt of others*
pride. I rewrote some of the chapters to eliminate
every possible cause for such apprehensions.

No; my only claim for credit is that I have prob-

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P&EFACB

ably worked twice as long as anybody else in this
field. I have lived for many years in a vortex of
advertising. Naturally I learned more from ex-
perience than those who had a lesser chance. Now^
I want that experience, so far as possible, to help
others avoid the same difficult climb. I set down
these findings solely for the purpose of aiding others
to start far up the heights I scaled. There is nothing
to be gained for myself save that satisfaction. Had
some one set down a record like this when I began
I would have blessed him for it. Then, with the
efforts I here describe, I might have attained some
peaks in advertising beyond any of us now. May
I live to see others do that.

Clauds C. Hopkins.

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MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

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Chatter One • :..-.. - ... ..

•• •'•• • • *•*•

EARLY INFLUEfjtBS: :::V::; :• : :
•.-.•••.:..::• -.::•%:••::

TH E greatest event in my career occurred a year
before I was born. My father selected for me
a Scotch mother. She typified in a high degree the
thrift and caution, the intelligence, ambition, and
energy of her race. Boys, they say, gain most of
their qualities from their mothers. Certainly I in-
herited from mine conspicuous conservatism. The
lack of that quality has wrecked more advertising
men, more business men, than anything else I know.

That fact will be emphasized again and again in
this book. I stress it here in tribute to the source of
my prudence. ''Safety first*' has been my guiding
star. A Scotch mother is the greatest asset a boy
can have who desires a career in advertising. Then
economy and caution are instinctive with him.
They are fundamentals. Success, save by accident,
is impossible without them. But the lack of these
qualities may be partially corrected by studious
cultivation.

Most business wrecks which I have encountered
are due to over-reaching. To reckless speculation
on a hidden chance. To that haste which laughs at
conservatism. To racing ahead on unblazed trails,
in fear that some rival may go farther or get higher.

There are exceptions in business, but not in ad-

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1 MY LIFE IN ADVERTI8INO

vertising. All advertising disasters are due to
.rMhness:. needless aad inexcusable. I do not mean
advertising'iailurps. All of us in this line attempt
: tltiJ^fi'^^icH cvxROt be done. We are dealing with
human nature, with wants, prejudices, and idio-
syncrasies which we cannot measure up. No
amount of experience can guide us correctly in even
the majority of cases. That is why incaution is an
advertising crime. In every advertising venture we
are dealing with a pig in the poke.

But ordinary failures mean little. They are ex-
pected. Every advertising venture in its initial
stage means simply feeling the public pulse. If
people do not respond, the fault often lies with the
product, or to circumstances beyond control. The
loss is a trifle, if anything, in ventures which are
rightly conducted. Hopes and ideas which fail to
pan out are mere incidents.

I refer to catastrophes, to the crash of wild specu-
lations. I mean advertising men who pilot some
big and costly ship to the rocks. Those men rarely
recover. Pilots who prove reckless are forever
feared. I have seen scores of promising men in this
line wreck themselves with their ships, just because
they ventured with all sails spread on some un-
charted course. So far as I remember, not one of
them ever came back. The Scotch blood in my
veins has for thirty-five years kept me from such
disasters.
Because of my mother, a dime to me has always

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EARLY INFLUENCES 3

looked as big as a dollar. Not my dimes only, but
the other fellow's dimes. I have spent them care-
fully, both as owner and trustee, I have never
gambled in a large way, whether acting for myself
or for others. So the failures I have made — and
they arc many — ^have never counted strongly against
me. I have escaped the distrust engendered by con-
spicuous disaster. When I lost, I lost little in
money and nothing in confidence. When I won, I
often gained millions for my client and a wealth of
prestige for myself. That I largely owe to my
mother.

I owe her vastly more. She taught me industry.
I can scarcely remember an hour, night or day,
when mother was not at work. She was a college
graduate with great intellectual powers. There
came a time when, as a widow, she had to support
her children by teaching school. Before and after
school she did the housework. In the evenings she
wrote books — kindergarten books for schools.
When vacation came, she tramped from school to
school to sell them. She did the work of three or
four women. She developed three or four careers.

From my earliest years, under her direction and
incentive, I did likewise. I have supported myself
since the age of nine. Other boys, when they went
to school as I did, counted their school work a day.
It was an incident to me. Before school I opened
two school-houses, built the fires and dusted the
seats. After school I swept those school-houses.

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4 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTI8IKO

Then I distributed the Detroit Evening News to sixtjr-
five homes before supper.

On Saturdays I scrubbed the two school-houses
and distributed bills. On Sundays I was a church
janitor, which kept me occupied from early morning
until ten o'clock at night. In vacations I went to
the farm, where the working time was sixteen hours
a day.

Wlien the doctor pronounced me too sickly for
school I went to the cedar swamp. There work
started at 4:30 in the morning. We milked the
cows and fed the cattle before breakfast. At 6:30
we drove to the swamp, carrying our lunch with us.
All day long we cut poles and hewed ties. After
dinner came another milking; then we bedded the
cattle for the night. At nine o'clock we crept up
a ladder to the attic and our bed. Yet it never oc-
curred to me that I was working hard.

In after years I did the same in business. I had no
working hours. When I ceased before midnight,
that was a holiday for me. I often left my office at
two o'clock in the morning. Sundays were my
best working days, because there were no inter-
ruptions. For sixteen years after entering business
I rarely had an evening or a Sunday not occupied by
work.

I am not advising others to follow my example.
I would not advise a boy of mine to do so. Life
holds so many other things more important than
success that work in moderation probably brings

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EARLY INFLUENCES 5

more joy. But the man who works twice as long
as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially
in advertising.

One cannot get around that. There is some dif-
ference in brains, of course, but it is not so impor-
tant as the difference in industry. The man who
does two or three times the work of another learns
two or three times as much. He makes more mis-
takes and more successes, and he learns from both.
If I have gone higher than others in advertising, or
done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability,
but to exceptional hours. It means that a man has
sacrificed all else in life to excel in this one pro-
fession. It means a man to be pitied, rather than
envied, perhaps.

Once I said in a speech, I figure that I have
spent seventy years in advertising. The time is only
thirty-five years by the calendar, but measured by
ordinary working hours and amount of work ac-
complished I have lived two years in one. Fru-
gality and caution kept me from disaster, but in-
dustry taught me advertising and made me what
lam.

Through father I gained poverty, and that was
another blessing. Father was the son of a clergy-
man. His ancestors far back had been clergymen,
bred and schooled in poverty, so this was his
natural state.

I owe much to that condition. It took me among
the common people, of whom God made so many.

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6 MY LIFE IN ADVBRTI8INO

I came to know them, their wants and impulses,
their struggles and economies, their simplicities.
Those conmion people whom I know so well be-
came my future customers. When I talk to them,
in print or in person, they recognize me as one of
their kind.

I am sure that I could not impress the rich, for I
do not know them. I have never tried to sell what
they buy. I am sure I would fail if I tried to ad-
vertise the Rolls-Royce, Tiffany & G>mpany or
Steinway pianos. I do not know the reactions of
the rich. But I do know the common people. I
love to talk to laboring-men, to study housewives
who must count their pennies, to gain the confi-
dence and learn the ambitions of poor boys and
girls. Give me something which they want and I
will strike the responsive chord. My words will
be simple, my sentences short. Scholars may ridi-
cule my style. The rich and vain may laugh at the
factors which I feature. But in millions of humble
homes the common people will read and buy. They
will feel that the writer knows them. And they,
in advertising, form 95 per cent of our customers.

To poverty I owe many experiences which taught
me salesmanship. Had it not been for poverty I
would never have been a house-to-house canvasser,
and there I learned the most I know about human
nature as applied to spending money. Guivassing
is a wonderful school. One of the greatest adver-
tising men this country has developed always went

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BA&LY INFLUBNCB8 7

oat to scU in person before he tried to sell in print.
I have known him to spend weeks in going from
farm to farm to learn the farmers* viewpoint. I
have known him to ring a thousand door-bells to
gain the woman's angle.

To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to
college. I spent those four years in the school of
experience instead of a school of theory. I know
nothing of value which an advertising man can be
taught in college. I know of many things taught
there which he will need to unlearn before he can
steer any practical course. Then higher education
appears to me a handicap to a man whose lifetime
work consists in appealing to common people.

Of course we had no advertising courses in my
school days, no courses in salesmanship or journal-
ism. I am sure it would be better if we did not have
them now. I have read some of those courses.
They were so misleading, so impractical, that they
exasperated me. Once a man brought me from a
great technical school their course in advertising,
and asked me how to improve it. When I read it I
said: '^Bum it. You have no right to occupy a
young man's most impressive years, most precious
years, with rot like that. If he spends four years
to learn such theories, he will spend a do2en years
to unlearn them. Then he will be so far behind in
the race that he will never attempt to catch up.'*

As I said, I was exasperated. I left a bad im-
pttssion. But tell me how a college professor, who

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8 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

has lived his life in an educational cloister, can be
fitted to teach advertising or practical business*
Those things belong to the school of real business.
They are learned nowhere else. I have talked with
hundreds of men on this subject. I have watched
the vagaries of men who, for lack of education,
place a halo on men who have it. I have gone to
colleges, entered their classes, listened to their lec-
tures. I went with respect, for I belong to a college
family. I was bom on a college campus. Father
and mother were both college graduates, my grand-
father was one of the founders of a college. My
sister and my daughter have college educations.

I am weighing my words. I have watched count-
less college men in business. In an advertising
agency of which I was head, we employed college
men, even as office boys. Many a client of mine
has adopted the same policy — ^to employ none but
college men. The whole idea was to employ men
with training which the employers lacked, and of
which they keenly felt the lack. But I cannot
remember one of those men who ever gained a
prominent place. The men who spent those college
years in practical business had an overwhelming
advantage. As far as advertising is concerned, one
can learn more in one week's talk with farm folks
than by a year in any classroom I know.

To Will Gu-leton I owe the influence which di-
rected my course from the ministry. I was destined
to be a clergyman. I came from a clerical ancestry.

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BARLT INFLUENCES 9

M7 given names were selected from the Who is Who
of clergymen. There was not the slightest question
in the minds of my family that my career would lie
in the pulpit.

But they overdid the training. My grandfather
was a Hardshell Baptist, my mother a Scotch Pres^
byterian. Together they made religion oppressive.
I attended five services on Sunday. I listened Sun-
day evening to dreary sermons when they had to
pinch me to keep me awake. Sundays were desolate
days. I was not allowed to walk. I could read
nothing but the Bible and the G)ncordance. I
spent the days in counting the words and letters in
the Bible to confirm the Concordance. I read in
addition Pilgrims' Progress^ and that was certainly
not a guide to any road a boy would care to follow.

Seemingly every joy in life was a sin. I was
taught that people who danced, played cards, or
attended the theater belonged to the devil's ranks.
And they who read any books which did not come
from the Sunday school were headed for a hot
hereafter.

Will Gu'leton was a classmate of my father's at
college. He wrote ^*Over the Hills to the Poor-
house/' and other famous ballads. The state of
Michigan has recently honored him by setting aside
his birthday, October 13, for annual observance in
the schools. He became the idol of my youth.

When I was a boy of nine or ten Will Carleton was
on the lecture platform. When he came to our city

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10 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

he Stopped at our home, and he found there the
ultra-religious atmosphere not pleasant for a boy.
After one of his visits he wrote a ballad based on
that experience. It was published in his City Ballads ^
and the title was, "There Wasn't Any Room for
His Heart.*' It recited the tale a young man told
the sheriff on his way to prison. The tale of a
Scotch Presbyterian home where religion was fanat-
icism. The boy, through this repression, was
driven into crime. Will Gurleton in that ballad
made me the victim of that religious tragedy, and
sent me a copy of the book.

That ballad had a greater influence on my career
than all my family teachings. I admired Will
Gurleton. I wanted to be when I grew up a famous
man like him. His attitude on my home life agreed
with mine, of course. And when such a man agreed
with me he gave my opinions weight. Ever after
that Will Gurleton became my guiding star. His
attitude on religious fanaticism showed me for the
first time that there was another side.

I went on studying for the ministry. I was a
preacher at seventeen. I preached in Chicago at
eighteen. But the course of thought which Will
Carleton started eventually made a religious career
impossible for me.

Another event had a great effect. My sister and
I had been ill. Mother had nursed us and cared for
us. During our convalescence she read to us Unch
Toms Cabin. A little later I learned that the play

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BA&LY INFLnBNCBS ii

was coming to town, so I made arrangements to
distribute the bills and earn some tickets for it.
After much persuasion mother agreed to let us see
the play.

The time was a week ahead, and the days passed
with leaden steps. On the morning of the great day
I arose at four o'clock. The day seemed endless.
At seven o'clock in the evening my sister and I were
unable to wait longer, so we induced our mother to
start with us for the town hall.

On the way we met the Presbyterian minister.
He was an old bachelor who had forgotten his
youth. Children instinctively shrank away from
him, so I sensed in his approach a calamity.

He accosted us and said: ''Well, sister, I see you
are out for a stroll. I love to see a mother and her
children in such perfect harmony.**

Mother replied: *'Yes, brother, we are out for a
stroll. But for more than that. I feel I should tell
you something. These children have been ill.
During their recovery I read them Uncle Toms
Cabin. They became intensely interested. Tonight
the play is coming to town and this boy has earned
the tickets. I have agreed to take the children
to the play. It cannot be worse than the book, and
the book has certainly been a great factor for good. * *

The bachelor clergyman replied: *1 see your
logic, sister, and I sympathize with your desire.
The book did prove itself a factor of tremendous
good. But remember this: Those children will

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XX MT LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

sometime go out from your care. They will sec the
lights of the devil's playhouses urging them to
enter. What will they say when those temptations
come? Will they say that their mother took them
to their first play, so they should not hesitate?"

Mother replied: *You arc right. I must not set
this bad example." And she turned and took us
home. In one moment I lost all respect for what
mother typified, and I never regained that respect.

Another man exerted a remarkable influence on
my impressive years. He was a railroad section
foreman, working for $i.6o per day. He bossed
several men whose wages were $1.15 per day.

Up to the age of six or seven I was surrounded by
college students at play. I knew nothing of the
serious side of student life, but I saw all the college
pranks. Thus I gained a rather fijrm idea that all
life was a playground.

This section foreman reversed that idea. He im-
pressed me with the difiference between him and his
helpers. The helpers worked from necessity. They
did as little as possible. They counted the hours to
quitting time, then on Saturday nights they would
go to the city and spend all they had earned in the
week.

The foreman worked with enthusiasm. He said:
"Boys, let us lay so many ties today. Let us get
this stretch in fine shape." The men would go at
it stoically, and work as though work was a bore.
But the foreman made the work a game.

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BA&LY INFLUBNCB8 X3

That man built his home in the evenings, after
ten-hour days on the railroad. He cultivated a
garden around it. Then he married the prettiest
girl in the section, and lived a life of bliss. Even-
tually he was called to some higher post, but not
until I learned great lessons from him.

• Took at those boys play ball, ' ' he said. * 'That's
what I call hard work. Here I am shingling a roof.
I am racing with time. I know what surface I must
cover before sunset to fulfill my stint. That's my
idea of fun."

'*Look at those fellows whittling, discussing
railroads, talking politics. The most that any of
them know about a railroad is how to drive a
spike. They will always do that and no more.
Note what I have done while they loafed there this
evening — ^built most of the porch on my home.
Soon I will be sitting there in comfort, making love
to a pretty wife. They will always be sitting on
those soap boxes around the grocery stove. Which
is work and which play?"

**If a thing is useful they call it work, if useless
they call it play. One is as hard as the other. One
can be just as much a game as the other. In both
there is rivalry. There's a struggle to excel the
rest. All the difference I see lies in attitude of mind. ' '

I never forgot those talks. That man was to me
what James Lucey was to Calvin Coolidge. I can
say to him now, as Coolidge said, "Were it not for
you I should not be here."

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14 M7 LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

In later years I became a director of the Volunteers
of America and made a study of life's derelicts. I
studied them in the soup kitchens, in prisons and
on parole. Their great trouble was not laziness,
but too much love of play. Or, rather, a wrong
idea of play. Most of them had in their youth
worked every waking hour. But some worked at
ball-throwing while others hoed the com. Some
pocketed balls while others pocketed orders. Some
of their home runs were recorded in chalk while
others' were carved in stone. All the difference
lay in a different idea of fun.

I came to love work as other men love golf. I
love it still. Many a time I beg off from a bridge
game, a dinner, or a dance to spend the evening in
my office. I steal away from week-end parties at
my country home to enjoy a few hours at my type-
writer.

So the love of work can be cultivated, just like
the love of play. The terms are interchangeable.
What others call work I call play, and vice versa.
We do best what we like best. If that is chasing a
polo ball, one will probably excel in that. If it
means checkmating competitors, or getting a home
run in something worth while, he will excel in that.
So it means a great deal when a young man can
come to regard his life work as the most fascinating
game that he knows. And it should be. The ap-
plause of athletics dies in a moment. The applause
of success gives one cheer to the grave.

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Chapter Two
LESSONS IN ADVERTISING AND SELLING

FATHER owned a newspaper in a prosperous
lumbering city. The people had money to
spend, so advertisers flocked there. We smile now
as we remember the ads. of those days, but we
smile at the hoopskirts, too.

Most of the advertisements were paid for in trade.
Our home became a warehouse of advertised mer«
chandise. I remember that at one time we had
six pianos and six sewing-machines in stock.

(>ie of the products which father advertised was
Vinegar Bitters. I afterward learned its history.
A vinegar-maker spoiled a batch through some
queer fermentation. Thus he produced a product
weird in its oflFensivcness. The people of those
days believed that medicine must be horrible to be
effective. We had oils and ointments **for man or
beast" which would make either wild. We used
* 'snake oil" and "skunk oil," presumably because
of their names. Unless the cure was worse than
the disease, no one would respect it.

So we had all sorts of bitters. Vinegar Bitters
was the worst of its kind, and therefore the most
popular. Father accepted that wretched stuff-
dozens of bottles — ^in payment for the advertising.
People came to us for pianos, organs, sewing-ma-

«5

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X6 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TI8IKO

chines, etc., but not for medicines. So our stock
of Vinegar Bitters accumulated.

Mother, being Scotch, could not tolerate waste.
She was bound to use up that medicine, and I,
being the sickly one of the family, was the victim.
I took Vinegar Bitters morning, noon, and night.
If the makers of that remedy are still in existence,
I can testify that since then I have had remarkable
health.

Father, in his newspaper office, also printed bills.
I used to study them; sometimes I would set them.
Then I would go to the advertiser and solicit the
job of distributing. There were one thousand
homes in our city. I would offer to place one bill
in each home for $i. It meant traveling some
thirty-five miles. Other boys offered to do the
same job for $1.30, but they would place several
bills in a home and would skip all the far-away
homes. I asked advertisers to compare the results,
and I soon obtained a monopoly.

That was my first experience with traced results.
It taught me to stand for known and compared
returns, and I have urged them ever since. In no
other way can real service reveal its advantage.
Doing anything blindly is folly.

When I was ten years old mother was left a
widow. From that time on I had to support myself
and contribute to the support of the family. I did
this in many ways, but the only ways which count
here are those which affected my after-career.

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LB880N8 IN ADVERTISING AND 8BLLINQ 17

Mother made a silver polish. I molded it into
cake form and wrapped it in pretty paper. Then I
went from house to house to sell it. I found that
I sold about one woman in ten by merely talking
the polish at the door. But when I could get into
the pantry and demonstrate the polish I sold to
nearly all.

That taught me the rudiments of another lesson
I never have forgotten. A good article is its own
best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods, in
print or in person, without samples.

The hardest struggle of my life has been to edu-
cate advertisers to the use of samples. Or to trials
of some kind. They would not think of sending
out a salesman without samples. But they will
spend fortunes on advertising to urge people to buy
without seeing or testing. Some say that samples
cost too much. Some argue that repeaters will ask
for them again and again. But persuasion alone
is vastly more expensive.

I wish that any advertiser who does not believe
that would do what I did with that silver polish.
It taught me a lesson which has saved advertisers
a good many millions of dollars. It will teach any
man in one day that selling without samples is
many times as hard as with them.

I learned this also from street fakers. I stood for
hours to listen to them in the torchlight. I realize
now that I drank in their methods and theories.
They never tried to sell things without dcmonstra-

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l8 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TI8INO

cion. They showed in some dramatic way what
the product they sold would do. It is amazing
how miany advertisers ^ow less thaa those men
about salesmanship. " *-

I shall deal with this further. The subject is
very near to my heart. I touch on it here to show
where I learned the rudiments of coupons. Since
then I have sent out in magazines and newspapers
hundreds of millions of coupons. Some were good
for a sample, some were good for a full-sized pack-
age free at any store. My name is identified with
this system of advertising. I have sampled every
sort of thing. Nothing else has done so much to
make me a factor in advertising. Yet how simple
it is and how natural. Doing what every salesman
must do, every canvasser and faker. None but
those who regard advertising as some magic dream-
land will ever try to sell without sampling.

Another way I found to make money was by sell-
ing books. The profit was loo per cent, and the
field appeared inviting. One day I read that Allen
Pinkerton, the great detective, had written his life
history. No need to say that Allen Pinkerton was
the hero of all boys of those times. So I induced
mother to invest our little capital in a supply of
Allen Pinkerton's books.

I remember when the books came in. I spread
them over the floor. I was sure that all people
were waiting to get them. I was anxious to rush
out and supply them.

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LB880N8 IN ADVERTISING AND 8BLLINO 19

Mother said: ''Get the leadiag men first. They
will bring in the others. ' * So I went up that morn-
ing to the mayor— Mr. Resigue — before he left his
home. He received me very cordially. I was a
widow's son. I had the cordial support of all our
best people in my efforts to make money. And I
have learned since that every young person has.
A man who has made a success desires to see others
make a success. A man who has worked wants to
see others work. I am that way. G>untless young
people now flock to my home, but the welcome ones
are those who work, whether young men or young
women. A boy having a good time on his father's
money has always been offensive to me. So, to a
degree, a young woman. If there is to be any
equality between the sexes, there should be equality
in effort. People of either sex must justify existence.
Some, through circumstances, may not fully earn
their way, but they should strive to do so. I abhor
drones. And I believe that my influence has driven
many men and women to greater happiness.

I realize now why Mr. Resigue received me so
politely that morning. I was a town boy, strug*
gling to succeed. Never in my busiest hour have
I ever refused to meet such a boy or girl myself. I
have spent many precious hours with them, financed
them and advised them. There is noticing I admire
more than the spirit to win one's way.

But I struck a snag that morning. Mr. Resigue
was a deeply religious man. He had some extreme

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aad exacting ideals. One idea of his was thata
detective, dealing with criminals, had no place in
polite society. He had outgrown the hero stage.

He listened to me until I brought out my book.
Then he gave it one glance, and threw the book in
my lap. He said, "You arc welcome in my home,
but not your book. One of you must depart. You
may stay here as long as you wish to, but your
book must go into the street. I consider that an
Allen Pinkerton book is an offense to all I stand
for."

That was a revelation. I have seen it exemplified
scores of times since then. Hundreds of men have
discussed their pet projects with me. Boards of
directors have gravely decided that the world must
be on their side. I have urged them to make tests,
to feel out the public pulse. I have told them that
people in general could never be judged by our-
selves. Some have listened and profited, some have
scorned my opinions. Sometimes those who de-
cided to judge the world by themselves, succeeded.
Four times in five they failed. I know of nothing
more ridiculous than gray-haired boards of di-
rectors deciding on what housewives want.

In the particular case which I recite the odds
were in my favor. I went home from the mayor's
house discouraged. I never dreamed that such
opinions about detective stories, my loved stories,
could exist.

Mother encouraged me. She said: **Go among

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LESSONS IN ADVB&TISINO AND 8BLLINO li

l)usiness men; go down to the *Big Store/ Leun
what the7 say about it/* I did so. The manager
bought a book. Then he took me around among
his office force and sold six more books for me. I
made a big clean-up on Allen Pinkerton's book.
' 'That taught me another lesson. We must never
judge humanity by ourselves. The things we want,
the things we like, may appeal to a small minority.
The losses occasioned in advertising by venturing
on personal preference would easily pay the national
debt. We live in a democracy. On every law there
are divided opinions. So in every preference, every
want. Only the obstinate, the bone-headed, will
venture far on personal opinion. We must submit
all things in advenising, as in everything else, to
the*^court of public opinion.

.This, you will see, is the main theme of this
book. I own an ocean-going yacht, but do you
suppose I would venture across an ocean without
a chart or compass? If I have no such records, I
take soundings all the way.

We are influenced by our surroundings. The
prosperous mingle with the prosperous, so do those
of certain likes and inclinations. The higher we
ascend the farther we proceed from ordinary human-
ity. That will not do in advertising.

I have seen hundreds of attempts and thousands
of projects which had no chance whatever. Just
because some bigoted men judged the many by the
few. I have taken part in such enterprises, but

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IX MY LIFB IN ADVB&TI8INO

only because of some business requirements. Men
could not be convinced. They were going ahead
on their limited conceptions, whether they were
wrong or right. I have done my duty by showing
them the way, or showing them the rocks, at the
least possible expense.

Let me digress here to say that the road to success
lies through ordinary people. They form the vast
majority. The man who knows them and is one
of them stands the vastly better chance.

Some of the greatest successes I have ever known
in advertising were ignorant men. Two are now
heads of agencies. One of them has made much
money in advertising — a man who can hardly sign
his name. But he knew ordinary people, and the
ordinary people bought what he had to sell.

One of them wrote copy which would induce a
farmer to mortgage his bam to respond. But his
every sentence had to be edited for grammar.

Now college men come to us by the hundreds and
say, **We have education, we have literary style."
I say to them that both those things are handicaps.
The great majority of men and women cannot ap-
preciate literary style. If they do, they fear it.
They fear over-influence when it comes to spending
money. Any unique style excites suspicion. Any
evident effort to sell creates corresponding resist*
ance. Any appeal which seems to come from a
higher class arouses their resentment. Any dicta-
tion is abhorrent to us all.

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LESSONS IN ADVERTISING AND SELLING 13

All the time we are seeking in advertising, men
with the impulses of the majority. We never ask
their education, never their literary qualifications.
Those lacks are easily supplied. But let a man prove
to us that he understands human nature and we
welcome him with open arms.

Let me cite two or three examples. One day I
received a letter from a man who had evidently
addressed me at random. He said, * 'There is a great
demand for ready-made meat pies, and I make them.
I have named them Mrs. Brown's Meat Pies, be-
cause people like home cooking. I have created a
considerable demand, and I know there exists a
much larger demand. I want capital to expand it. ' *

I saw in that man primeval instincts. His meat
pies did not attract me, but his rare insight to
human nature did. So I sent out a man to investi-
gate. He found that the writer was a night cook
in a shabby restaurant at $8 per week. I brought
him to my office, and I offered him $15 per week to
learn advertising. He came with me, and he is
now one of the leading advertising men of the
country.

Another man came to Qiicago from Manitowoc,
Wisconsin. He ate breakfast at a Thompson res-
taurant. He found there a baked apple which re-
minded him of his home. He said to himself,
**There are thousands of men who come, as I do,
£rom the country to Chicago. Two-thirds of the

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24 MY LIPB IN ADVBRTI8INO

city consists of them. I should tell them about
those baked apples.*'

He wrote up a page ad. on baked apples and sub-
mitted it to John R. Thompson. Mr. Thompson
agreed to run it, and the patronage of his restaurants
increased at once. That was the beginning of an
advertising campaign which multiplied the patron-
age of the Thompson lunch rooms and made their
owner many times a millionaire.

Most young men and most beginners think that
the older men overlook them. My experience is
that men in business are looking for capacity. That
is the crying dearth. The more we know the more
we realise the volume of work to be done. The
able workers in any line are few, and all are look-
ing for relief and help. All who see the realities
are anxious to find other» who can see them.

That first Thompson ad. was published on Sun-
day morning. I was head of the copy department
in a large advertising agency. I was seeking for
new talent. That very morning I found the man
who wrote that ad. and brought him to my hotel.
I offered him $7,500 per year — a man from a small
town in Wisconsin who had never earned one^fifth
that. I saw in him one of the few men who knew
people as I know them.

He did not accept, for he saw in his first ad. the
chance to independent success. He went on and
won it. He pictured to the country boys of the
city the foods they had known at home. Dough-

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LBS80N8 IN ADVERTISING AND SELLING 15

nuts, pies, real country eggs and butter. And there
he laid the foundation of a great advertising career.

So with Phillip Lennan. He came from Sjrracuse,
and after some initial experience started with Royal
Tailors. The Royal Tailors sold tailored clothes
to young men in small towns and in the country.
Lennan conceived the idea that Chicago conuined
a large country population. He remembered his
own environments of a few years before. Men
would go to ''misfit parlors" because the name sug-
gested made-to-order clothes. So he invited the
men of Chicago to come to his shops, and brought
them by the tens of thousands. I offered him a
position at twice what he was earning, because he
knew what people really wanted.

So with Charles Mears, who advertised the Win-
ton car. He was one of the most human men I have
ever met. I offered him $15,000 per year to come
into the agency field. I said : '*You are one of the
few natural people in advertising who appeal to nat-
ural impulses. We need you, we who are struggling
to find real humanity.'*

I am trying to show by this how ordinary, how
plebeian, good advertising is. And how ordinary
humanity counts. Most new men in this field rely
on language, on the ability to express an idea.
Others count on queer things which attract at-
tention. All of them are trying to flatter them-
selves, and that always arouses resentment. The
real people in advertising whom I know are all

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x6 MY LIFE IN ADVB&TISINO

humble people. They came from humble people,
and they know them.

Those people are canny, economical, thrifty, sus-
picious. They are not easily fooled on ordinary
purchases. The highly-educated man, the man who
has lived in a different environment, cannot under-
stand them I

We see today that the heads of large enterprises
are men who arose from the ranks. They know
their associates all the way up, the men they com-
mand and influence. Yet there is no line in which
such knowledge is more important than in adver-
tising. So the lowly experiences I have cited here
are indicative of the chief requirements in adver-
tising, in business, or in politics.

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Chaffer Three
MY START IN BUSINESS

UP TO my graduation from high school my
ambition was the ministry. I was an earnest
Bible student. The greatest game we had in our
house was repeating Bible verses. We took turns,
as in a spelling bee, going around the circle, until
all dropped out save one. I was always that one.
I had memorized more verses than anyone I met.
jl^Qften the minister dropped in, but he was no
competitor of mine in a Bible competition. I knew
several times as many verses. At the age of seven
I was writing sermons and setting them in my
father's printing-office. Often in prayer-meetings
I spoke a short sermon. Thus all came to regard
me as a coming pulpit orator. I was made vale^
dictorian of my class at school. My graduating
essay was on ambition, and I still remember how
I denounced it, how I pleaded for poverty and
service.

During the following summer I preached every
Sunday in a country school where I taught. The
school was twelve miles from my home, but I
walked there with my luggage. I found that no
one on the school board could read or write. The
head of the school board and leader in his com-
munity gained his distinction through a barrel of

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XS MT LIPB XN ADVB&TI8INO

whisky which stood in the comer of his living*
room. It had floated ashore from a wreck on Lake
Michigan. The man was generous with it, so his
home became the headquarters of the community.

The only other furniture in the room consisted
of a wood-stove and three soap boxes. Sitting on
one of those soap boxes, I struggled to convince
the illiterate man that I was qualified to teach. I
did so at last by reading a joke from an almanac.
That pamphlet constituted his entire library, and
my reading of it was a revelation to him. That
was another lesson. Not that I have dealt largely
with illiterate people, but with very simple people.
And I love them. I love and know their natural
instincts and reactions.

: Then came the question of pay. They were plan-
ning two months of summer school. We went to
the home of the treasurer and counted the district
resources. They amounted to $79.50. and I was
offered that sum for my teaching.

I found a farm home which had a new organ, and
two girls who wanted to play. I offered to give
them music lessons, plus one dollar per week, for
my board. My savings that summer amounted to
$35 per month. It was a long, long time after
entering business before I saved as much.

I was the teacher in that community on week-
days and the minister on Sundays. And I learned
there every day new lessons about people. That.

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MY START IN BUSINESS 19

you will realize as you go along, is the most I have
ever learned.

When that summer was over I went to Chicago.
Mother was visiting at the home of Doctor Mills
in Brighton Park, and I joined her. The day after
my arrival was Sunday. In the afternoon the min-
ister came to call. He was ill. The next day he
was leaving for an extended vacation. He told us
how he dreaded to preach that night, so mother
suggested that I should relieve him. I was a
student for the ministry.

I recognized that as a crisis. I had been growing
away from mother's strict ideas of religion. I knew
that she could not approve of me if she knew me
as I was. She was a fundamentalist. She believed
in a personal devil, in hell fire, and in all the mir-
acles. To her the Bible was a history, inspired by
its writers and to be taken literally. The earth
was created in six days. Eve was derived from
Adam's rib. William Jennings Bryan would have
been mother's idol.

I had been growing away from her orthodox con-
ceptions, but I had not dared to tell her. It would
mean the destruction of her fondest illusions. But
during the summer I had prepared a sermon based
on my ideas of religion. It countenanced the harm-
less joys of life which had been barred to me. It
argued against hell fire, against infant damnation,
against the discipline I knew. It even questioned
the story of the creation and of Jonah and the whale.

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30 MT LIFB IN ADVB&TI8INO

I resolved to deliver the sermon that night and
face the consequences. I was eighteen then. Never
since then have I dared to face a crisis like that.
Unless I entered the ministry, I felt that my school
days were ended. I had come to Chicago to decide
on my course, and this was the test.

That evening in the pulpit remains one of my
clearest memories. There were eight hundred
people in the audience, averaging twice my age.
But I forgot them all. Mother was the only au-
ditor whom I had in mind. I knew that the min-
ister who sat behind me was mother's friend. His
orthodox ideas agreed with hers. So I felt myself
a radical of the deepest dye. Never since have I
faced, to my knowledge, such unanimous oppos-
ition. That sermon I consider the most daring
event of my life.

As the sermon progressed the minister grew rest-
less. Mother's face was an enigma. The audience
appeared appalled. When I finished, the minister
pronounced a trembling benediction. The audience
filled out in silence. Not a man or woman came to
greet me. Then I knew myself an outcast from the
flocks I had hoped to lead.

Mother walked home in silence. She said no
word to me that night, but I knew that I had
brought myself to the parting of the ways. The
next day she asked me to lunch with her down-
town. At a table on Dearborn Street she opened
the subject by stating that I no longer was her son.

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MY START IN BUSINESS 31

I waited for nothing further, but arose and walked
out on the street. There I closed the door forever
on a clergyman's career.

Mother was never the same to me again. She
could not forgive my delinquency. We rarely met
after that day. She lived to see me successful in
other occupations, but she never discussed them
with me. I had blighted her ambitions. But if
advertising had ever been made to me as oppressive
as religion, I would have abandoned that. I have,
in fact, quit many a big account because of some-
what similar reasons. I believe every man should
do so. No man can succeed in any line where he
finds himself in disagreement and where unhappi-
ness results. I consider business as a game and I
play it as a game. That is why I have been, and
still am, so devoted to it.

On that fateful day, out on Dearborn Street, I
felt in my pocket and found only three dollars. The
rest of my savings had been left in Michigan. I
thought of Spring Lake, where my uncle had a
fruit farm. It was fruit-picking time, so I resolved
to get there and pick fruit.

I went down to the harbor and found several
lumber vessels from Muskegon. The captain of
one of them let me work my way across as chore-
boy in the kitchen. From Muskegon I walked to
Spring Lake, and arranged to pick fruit for my
uncle and others at $i.z5 per day. Those earnings,
with my savings as a school-teacher, gave me over

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31 MT LIFE IN ADVERTISING

$100. But I needed $200 for a course at business
college.

Grandfather, who lived at my uncle's home, ad-
mired the way I worked. He called me Mr. Stick-
to-itiveness. There were two of us boys on the
farm, cousins of the same age. I worked sixteen
hours a day, my cousin worked as little as he could.
So grandfather decided to back me. All he had in
the world was $100, saved to bury him. He oflFered
that to me on condition that I assume the burial
expense when it came. Of course I did.

That was another crisis in my career. There were
two grandsons of similar age. So far as anyone
knew, there was no choice in ability. I, being a
back-slider, had to face considerable disapproval.
But I had saved $100, and I worked. The other boy
had saved nothing, and he did not like to work.
So I was the one who secured the help which
changed the current of my life. The other boy
became a locomotive fireman. So it has been in
many a juncture I have witnessed since. The saver
and the worker get the preference of the men who
control opportunities. And often that preference
proves to be the most important thing in life.

With $100 I went to Grand Rapids and entered
Swensburg's Business College. It was a ridiculous
institution. * 'Professor" Swensburg wrote a fine
Spencerian hand. With that single qualification he
became a business teacher, but he taught us nothing.
His whole conception of business as we saw it was

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MT START IN BUSINESS 33

confined to penmanship. We might as well have
spent those six months in a university studying
dead languages. We were supposed to graduate as
bookkeepers, but all we learned of bookkeeping
was some stilted figures.

The real teacher was a man named Welton.^ Wc
called him "Professor" Welton. He died a janitor.
His idea of teaching was to ridicule us boys and
make us feel insignificant. His phrases dripped
with sarcasm. His favorite form of torture was a
spelling lesson with some catch words which none
could spell. It showed us how hopeless we were.
In one lesson, I remember, he inserted the word
charavari. Not a boy could spell it. Then he asked
us to consult the dictionary and bring the word in
the next morning. But none of us could find it, as
he knew. We could not get the first three letters
right. That gave him opportunity to comment on
what boobs we were.

' 'Professor* ' Swensburg gave us a morning lecture.
His object seemed also to make us feel humble.
Perhaps that is a good qualification for a book-
keeper who expects to grow old on a high stool.
I am inclined to think it is. His lessons in humility
consisted in assuring us that there were bookkeep-
ing jobs awaiting us at $4.50 per week when our
course was finished. Not a word/)f enlightenment,
none of encouragement. Just ridicule and sarcasm
directed at us students from his pompous heights.

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34 MT LIFB IN ADVEKTI8INO

Still he rightly estimated us, I think. Anyone who
paid more to a Swensburg graduate paid too much.

I was nearing the end of my course, also of my
resources. I began to contemplate going back to
the farm. Then one morning * 'Professor" Swens-
burg brought a postal card to his lecture, and used
that as his subject. He said, ''I have often told
you boys that positions awaited you at $4.50 per
week somewhere. Now I have the actual evidence.
It comes on a postal, not in a letter, to save posuge.
A business man in Grand Rapids writes me that he
has a bookkeeping position at $4.50 per week for
one of you, and he asks me to send him a candidate.
Don't all of you apply at once, but whoever among
you wants that position should come to my office
after the lecture and I will give him the name and
address.**

The other boys laughed. It was a new joke on
their worthlessness. But I edged toward the door.
When the ''Professor'* finished his lecture and
started downstairs I was only one step behind.

He gave me a letter to E. G. Studlcy, and I went
to interview him. He was interested in the Grand
Rapids Felt Boot Company. The young man who
had kept the books had been advanced to superin-
tendent. They wanted some one in his place. If
that superintendent considered me qualified, I could
have the position.

I went to him and secured it. The bookkeeping
was a minor item. I was expected to sweep the

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MY START IN BUSINESS 35

floors &nd wash the windows. I was also to be
errand boy. The chief condition was that I was
never to wear a coat. The superintendent was very
democratic. He wanted no **dudes" about him.
In the office and on errands downtown I was always
to appear in my shirt sleeves. I could qualify for
that position because I had two shirts left.

Then came the question of living on $4.50 per
week. I found a small room with a widow who
wanted a man in the house. That cost me one
dollar per week. In a restaurant over a grocery
store a dingy man served dingy meals at $1.50 per
week. They were beyond my teach. I had to con*
sider my laundry. So I arranged with him to miss
two meals a week and get board for $1.15.

I was a young man, active and ever hungry. Al-
ways the great question was, what meals to miss.
I tried breakfast, but morning found me starving.
I tried luncheon, but that lost meal would spoil my
afternoon. My only way was to race by the res*
taurant at night and go to bed. And that I could
not do unless I crossed the street. The smell of the
food would tempt me to forget the shirt sleeves
which formed so great a factor in my work.

That sounds rather pitiful, but it wasn't. It was
a great advance over my cedar-swamp experience.
I slept alone in a bed, instead of on a hay mow with
railroad section men. So long as we are going up-
ward, nothing is a hardship. But when we start

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36 MY LIFB IN ADVBKTISINO

down, even from a marble mansion to a cheaper
palace, that is hard.

The Felt Boot Qjmpany comprised some of the
leading business men of Grand Rapids. Our sales
came in winter only, so all summer long we bor-
rowed money to get ready for those sales. The
directors indorsed our notes. One of my duties was
to go around and secure indorsements and renewals.
In that way I met Mr. M. R. Bissell, president of
the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company.

He was a genial man, and I saw in him my chance
to a higher salary. One day I waylaid him on his
way to lunch. I pictured the difficulties of a young
man living on $4.50 per week. There was no need
to exaggerate. Tliere on his way to lunch I told
him of the two meals weekly I was obliged to miss.
Above all, I pictured my dream of pie. I knew a
restaurant which served pie at dinner, but the
board was $3.50 per week. My greatest ambition
at that time was to get that pie.

From him I learned another kink in human na-
ture. Struggle and poverty did not appeal to him.
He had known them well, and he considered them
good for a fellow. But he loved pie, and had never
been denied it. So he invited me home to eat pie.
And he arranged for a salary of $6 per week so I
could have pie every day.

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Chapter Four
HOW I GOT MY START IN ADVERTISING

THAT contact with Mr. Bisscll led to frequent
contacts. Soon we entered the cold-weather
season when my duties became heavy.

"I hear you are working hard/* Mr. Bissell said
to me one day.

I replied, "I should work hard, for I have so
many easy months."

He insisted on the details, and he learned that I
was leaving my office at two o'clock in the morning
and appearing again at eight. Like all big men
whom I have known, he was a tremendous worker.
He had always done the average work of three men.
So the hours that I kept gave him interest in me,
auid he urged me to join his office force.

In the early stages of our careers none can judge
us by results. The shallow men judge us by likings,
but they are not men to tie to. The real men judge
us by our love of work, the basis of their success.
They employ us for work, and our capacity for
work counts above all else.

I started with the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Com-
pany in February as assistant bookkeeper at $40 a
month. By November I had advanced to $75. I
was head bookkeeper then, and my position offered
no chance to go farther.

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38 MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

I began to reason in this way: A bookkeeper is
an expense. In every business expenses are kept
down. I could never be worth more than any other
man who could do the work I did. The big sal-
aries were paid to salesmen, to the men who
brought in orders, or to the men in the factory who
reduced the costs. They showed profits, and they
could command a reasonable share of those profits.
I saw the difference between the profit-earning and
the expense side of a business, and I resolved to
graduate from the debit class.

Just at that time, Mr. Charles B. Judd, our man-
ager, brought to our accounting office a pamphlet
written by John E. Powers. Powers was then the
dean of advertising, which meant really a wet
nurse. Advertising was then in its infancy. He
had been advertising writer for John Wanamaker in
Philadelphia, and there he created a new conception
of advertising. He told the truth, but told it in a
rugged and fascinating way. Wanamaker paid him
$11,000 a year, which in those days was considered
a fabulous salary. He had become the model and
ideal of all men who had advertising ambitions.
And so, in some respects, today. The principles
for which John Powers stood are still among our
advertising fundamentals.

John Powers had left Wanamaker*s and gone out
for himself. The Bissell G)mpany*s Eastern man-
ager, Thomas W. Williams^ was one of his great

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HOW I GOT MY START IN ADVERTISING 39

admirers. Through him I had heard a great deal of
Powers and his dramatic advertising.

One incident which I remember occurred in Pitts-
burgh. A clothing concern was on the verge of
bankruptcy. They called in Powers, and he im-
mediately measured up the situation. He said:
* 'There is only one way out. Tell the truth. Tell
the people that you are bankrupt and that your only
way to salvation lies through large and immediate
sales.*'

The clothing dealers argued that such an an-
nouncement would bring every creditor to their
doors. But Powers said: '*No matter. Either tell
the truth or I quit."

Their next day's ad. read something like this:
"We are bankrupt. We owe $115,000, more than
we can pay. Tliis announcement will bring our
aeditors down on our necks. But if you come and
buy tomorrow we shall have the money to meet
them. If not, we go to the wall. These are the
prices we are quoting to meet this situation:"

Truth was then such a rarity in advertising that
this announcement created a sensation. People
flocked by the thousands to buy, and the store was
saved.

Another time he was asked to advertise mackin-
toshes which could not be disposed of.

•*What is the nutter with them?" Powers asked.
'. The buyer replied : * 'Between you and me they are

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40 MT LIFB IN ADVERTISING

rotten. That is nothi 13, of course, to say in the
advertising, but it is true."

The next day came an ad. stating, "We have
I ,ioo rotten mackintoshes. They are almost worth-
less, but still worth the price we ask. G)me and
see them. If you find them worth the price we ask,
then buy."

The buyer rushed up to Powers, ready for a fight.
"What do you mean by advertising that our mack-
intoshes are rotten?" he cried. "How can we ever
hope to sell them?"

"That is just what you told me," said Powers.
"I am simply telling people the truth." Before the
buyer had a chance to calm down every mackintosh
was sold.

It was then, at the height of his fame, he submitted
a pamphlet to the Bisscll Carpet Sweeper Qjmpany,
by request of Mr. Williams. It was written on
butcher paper. One of Powers* ideas was that
manner should never becloud matter. I well remem-
ber the first sentence — "A carpet sweeper, if you
get the right one — ^you might as well go without
matches."

But he knew nothing about carpet sweepers. He
had given no study to our trade situation. He
knew none of our problems. He never gave one
moment to studying a woman's possible wish for a
carpet sweeper.

I said to Mr. Judd, "That cannot sell carpet
sweepers. There is not one word in that pamphlet

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HOW I GOT MY START IN ADVERTISING 41

which will lead women to buy. Let me try my
hand. In three days I will hand you a book to com-
pete with it, based on knowledge of our problems."

Mr. Judd smiled, but consented. During the next
two nights I did not sleep at all. On the third day
I presented a pamphlet which caused all to decide
against Powers. He sued them for his fee, but on
my pamphlet they fought and won the suit.

The carpet sweeper business was then in its in-
fancy. Users were few and sales were small. On
the strength of my pamphlet I asked for permission
to try to increase the demand. Christmas was ap-
proaching. On my nights pacing the streets I had
thought of the idea of a sweeper as a Christmas
present. It had never been offered as such. I de-
signed a display rack for exhibit. I drew up cards,
•'The Queen of Christmas Presents.*' And I went
to the manager and asked his permission to solicit
some trade by mail.

He laughed at me. He was an ex-salesman, as
were all of our directors. He said: "Go out on the
road and try to sell sweepers. Wherever you go you
will find them covered with dust, with dealers
ready to give them away. The only way to sell a
new lot is to use a gun. Get a man in a corner and
compel him to sign an order. When you talk of
selling such men by letter, I can only laugh.**

But the pamphlet I wrote had won his respect.
He consented to try a few thousand letters. So I
wrote and told the dealers about our display racks

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41 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTISINO

and our cards. I offered both free for Christmas,
not as a gift, but as a reward. Not then, or ever
since, have I asked a purchase. That is useless. I
have simply offered service. I required a signed
agreement from the dealer to display the sweepers
on the rack with the cards I furnished. This made
him solicit me.

I sent out some five thousand letters. They
brought me one thousand orders, almost the first
orders we had ever received by mail. That was the
birth of a new idea which led me to graduate from
the expense account to the field of money-earners.

Even then I had no courage. I did not dare to
enter the business-getting field without an anchor
to windward. That, again, was due to mother. So
I decided to devote my days to these new adven*
tures, and my nights to work on the books. Thus
I continued for long. Rarely did I leave my office
before midnight, and I often left at two in the
morning.

As a boy I had studied forestry. I gathered sam-
ples of all the woods around me and sent them to
other boys for exchange. Thus I accumulated scores
of interesting woods. This little hobby of mine
led directly to my next merchandising step.

I conceived the idea of offering Bissell Carpet
Sweepers in some interesting woods. If my Christ-
mas idea had excited ridicule, this excited pity. I
asked them to build Bissell carpet sweepers in
twelve distinguished woods, one in each wood to

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HOW I GOT MT 8TA&T IN ADVERTISING 43

the dozen. I wanted them to run from the white of
the bird's-eye maple to the dark of the walnut, and
to include all the colors between.

That aroused real opposition. As I have said,
all the directors of the company were ex-salesmen.
One was the inventor of some new devices and was
a power to be regarded. He said: "Why not talk
broom action, patent dumping devices, cyco bear-
ings, and the great things I have created?"

"I am talking to women," I replied. "They arc
not mechanics. I want to talk the things which
they will understand and appreciate."

They finally let me do that as a concession. Since
I had done what they deemed impossible and sold
sweepers by letter, they could hardly refuse me a
reasonable latitude. They agreed to build 150,000
sweepers, twelve woods to the dozen, for me.

While they were building the sweepers, I ar-
ranged my plans. I wrote letters to dealers, in
effect as follows: "Bissell carpet sweepers are today
offered twelve woods to the dozen — the twelve
finest woods in the world. They come with display
racks free. They come with pamphlets, like the
one inclosed, to feature these twelve woods. They
will never be offered again. We offer them on
condition that you sign the agreement inclosed.
You must display them until sold, on the racks and
with the cards we furnish. You must send out our
pamphlets in every package which leaves your store
for three weeks." I offered a privilege, not an in-

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44 MT LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

duc^nent. I appeared as a benefactor, not as a
salesman. So dealers responded in a way that sold
our stock of 2.50,000 sweepers in three weeks.

Let us pause here for a moment. That was my
beginning in advertising. It was my first success.
It was based on pleasing people, like everything
else I have done. It sold, not only to dealers, but
to users. It multiplied the use of carpet sweepers.
And it gave to Bissell sweepers the practical monop-
oly which they maintain to this day.

Other men will still say; "I have no such oppor-
tunity. My line is not like that.'* Of course it
isn't, but in all probability it offers a thousand ad-
vantages. No man is in any line that is harder to
sell than carpet sweepers were in those days. I care
not what it is. The usual advertising was impos-
sible. A carpet sweeper would last ten years. The
profit was about one dollar. Never has anyone
found an ordinary way to advertise profitably an
article of that class.

No young man finds himself in any field with
smaller opportunity. Any man in a bank, a lumber
office, a tire concern, or a grocery has a far better
opportunity than I had. The only difference lies in
his conceptions. I felt that clerkship was an ex-
pense, and expenses would always be minimized. I
was struggling to graduate into the profit-earning
class where no such limit exists.

My success with the twelve woods gave me great
prestige. Then I sought other unique ideas. I

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HOW I GOT MT 8TA&T IN ADVBRTI8INO 45

went to Chicago and saw a Pullman car finished in
vermilion wood. It was a beautiful red wood. I
went to the Pullman factory and asked them about
it. They told me that the wood came from India,
that all the forests were owned by the British
Government, that the wood was all cut by convicts,
then hauled to the Ganges River by elephants. The
vermilion wood was heavier than water, so a log
of ordinary wood was placed on either side of each
vermilion log to float it down the river.

That gave me the idea of an interesting picture.
Government forests, convicts, elephants, the Gan-
ges. On the way home I visualized that appeal.

But I returned to realities in Grand Rapids the
next morning. My employers there had no con-
ception of government forests, rajahs, elephants,
etc. They had perfected a new dumping device.

So I argued long and loud. I asked them to order
a cargo of vermilion wood. They laughed. Again
they said that sweeper users were not buying woods,
that they wanted broom action, efficient dumping
devices, pure bristle brushes, and so forth. What
folly! Oac might as well discuss the Einstein the-
ory with an Eskimo.

But my successes had brought me some prestige,
and I finally induced our people to order for me the
single cargo I desired. While waiting for it I pre-
pared my campaign. I had letter heads litho-
graphed in vermilion color. My envelopes were
vermilion addressed in white ink. I printed two

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46 MY LIFB IN ADVBKTI8IKO

million pamphlets with vermilion covers and a
rajah's head on the front. The pamphlet told a
story intended to arouse curiosity, to bring women
to see that wood. No other activating factor com-
pares with curiosity. Pictures showed the forests,
the convicts, the elephants, the Ganges River and
the Pullman car. One hundred thousand letters
were printed to oflFer this wood to dealers.

After some weeks the wood arrived in the shape
of rough-hewn timbers. A few hours later Mr.
Johnson, the factory superintendent, came to me
with tears in his eyes. **We tried to saw that ver-
milion wood,'* he said, *'and the saw flew to
pieces. The wood is like iron. It cannot be cut.
That whole cargo is waste. ' '

I said : ' 'Brace up, Mr. Johnson. We all have our
problems to solve. They told me I could not sell
carpet sweepers by letters, but I did. Now you, as
a factory expert, cannot afford to fall down."

He cut up the logs in some way with a cross-cut
saw. Then he came with a new complaint. He
could not drive a brad in the wood, so he saw no
way to build a sweeper with it.

I said: "Johnson, you annoy me. Come, take
my desk and try to sell those sweepers and I will go
and make them. Bore holes for jour brads."

But the storms were gathering for me. Manu-
facturing had almost stopped. The cost of the
sweepers was mounting. So I had to make the con-
cession of offering only three vermilion wood

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HOW I GOT MY START IN ADVBRTI8INO 47

sweepers as part of each dozen, and the rest in
ordinary woods.

Soon I was ready to mail the letters. They did
not urge dealers to buy the sweepers. They offered
the privilege of buying. Three vermilion wood
sweepers would come in each dozen if orders were
sent at once. The dealer could sell them at any
price he chose. But never again could he obtain
Bissell sweepers built in vermilion wood. The
only condition was that the dealer must sign the
agreement inclosed. He had to display the sweepers
until sold, had to display the cards we sent him,
and had to inclose our vermilion pamphlet in every
package which left his store for three weeks. Thus
again I placed the dealer in position where he was
soliciting us.

The response was overwhelming. The Bissell
Girpet Sweeper Company made more money in the
next six weeks than they had made in any year be-
fore. They had vastly increased the number of
dealers handling carpet sweepers. And they had
multiplied the interest of women in a device which
was then in but limited use.

After that I gave up my bookkeeping and de-
voted my time to selling. I sold more carpet sweep-
ers by my one-cent letters than fourteen salesmen
on the road combined. At the same time our sales-
men increased their sales by having new features to
talk. Thus Bissell carpet sweepers attained the
position which they hold today. They came to

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48 MT LIFB IN ADVERTI8INO

control some 95 per cent of the trade. The adver-
tising was done by the dealer. The demand grew
and grew until the Bissell G^mpany became, I be-
lieve, the richest concern in Grand Rapids.

My business was to devise three selling schemes
a year. They all referred to finishes and woods. I
found a man, for instance, who had patented a
method of coloring veneers. The coloring liquid
was placed on the under side. It came through the
veneer wherever the ends of the grains showed on
top, creating a weird and beautiful eflfect. I gave the
resulting wood a coined name and inclosed samples
in my letters.

Again I oflFered to supply dealers three gold-plated
sweepers as a part of each dozen, exactly the same
as we exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago.
Thus I placed thousands of World's Fair exhibits in
windows the country over.

But in two or three years I found myself running
out of schemes. There are distinct limitations to
exciting varieties in carpet sweeper finishes. New
ideas came harder and harder. I felt that I was
nearing the end of my resources, so I began to look
for wider fields.

Just at that time Lord & Thomas of Chicago first
offered me a position. They had a scheme man
named Carl Greig, who was leaving them to go
with the Inter Ocean to increase the circulation.
Lord & Thomas, who had watched my sweeper-
selling schemes, offered me his place. The salary

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ROW I GOT MY START IN ADVB&TI8INO 49

was much higher than I received in Grand Rapids,
so I told the Bissell people that I intended to take it.
They called a directors' meeting. Every person on
the board had, in times past, been my vigorous op-
ponent. All had fought me tooth and nail on every
scheme proposed. They had never ceased to ridi-
cule my idea of talking woods in a machine for
sweeping carpets. But they voted unanimously to
meet the Lord & Thomas offer, so I stayed.

That, however, as I knew then, was but a tempo-
rary decision. I felt the call to a wider field, and
the Chicago offer had whetted my ambitions. Soon
after I received another and a larger offer, and
resigned.

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Chapter Five
LARGER FIELDS

NOW I approach a tragic epoch in my life. I
was close to my limits in Grand Rapids. The
offer from Lord & Thomas gave me wider recogni-
tion. Ambition surged within me, because of my
mother's blood. I became anxious to go higher.

But I had built a new home in Grand Rapids.
All the friends I knew were about me. There I
enjoyed prestige. I knew that in a larger field I
would have to sacrifice the things that I loved most.

I suppose I was right in my desires, according to
general standards. Ambition is everywhere ap-
plauded. But I have often returned to Grand Rapids
to envy my old associates. They continued in a
quiet, sheltered field. They met no large demands.
Success and money came to them in moderation.
But in my turbulent life, as I review it, I have found
no joys they missed. Fame came to me, but I did
not enjoy it. Money came in a measure, but I could
never spend it with pleasure. My real inclination
has always been toward the quiet paths. This story
is written in gardens near Grand Rapids, where the
homing instinct brought me. When my old friends
and I get together here, it is hard to decide who
took the wiser course.

Swifr & Company, packers of Chicago, advertised

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LA&OBR FIBLD6 31

for tn advertising manager. I looked them up, and
I found that their capital at that time was $15,000,-
000. I inquired about them, and I learned that they
intended to spend $300,000 per year. That would
place them at that time among the largest American
advertisers. I could not see in the Bissell line one-
tenth the chance they offered. So I resolved to
obtain that Chicago position. I had no doubt of
my ability to do so. In my Michigan field I was
king, and I never dreamed that other potentates
might treat me as a slave.

I went to Chicago, then out to the stockyards,
and was referred to Mr. I. H. Rich. He was head
of the butterine department and the man who had
urged them to advertise.

**Mr. Rich,'' I said, *1 have come for that posi-
tion.

He smiled at me benevolently and asked for my
name and address. Then he wrote my name down
on a sheet which held many names before mine.

''What are all those names?" I asked.

•'Why, they are other'applicants!" said Mr. Rich.
"There are one hundred and five of them. Your
number is one hundred and six."

I was astounded. One hundred and six men con-
sidered themselves fitted for that high position.
What effrontery!

I turned to Mr. Rich and said: "I came here
mainly to learn where I stood in advertising. I did
not really desire this position. My heart is in

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51 MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

Grand Rapids, and I feel that my happiness lies
there. But this is a challenge. I am going to prove
myself best fitted for this place."

Mr. Rich smiled and said: "Go ahead, and God
bless you. We are waiting to be convinced." Then
after a brief talk he dismissed me.

I knew all of the leading advertising agents of
Chicago. They had solicited my business. So that
afternoon I went to each and said, "Please write
today to I. H. Rich, care Swift & Company, Union
Stockyards, Chicago, and say what you think of
Claude Hopkins." All promised to do that, and I
knew that some of them would write very flattering
things.

That night I returned to Grand Rapids. It hap-
pened that I had lately been employed there by the
Board of Trade to write a history of Grand Rapids.
The members were delighted with it. Writing that
book had brought me into contact with aU the
leading business men. I started out the next morn-
ing to see them. First I called on the bankers, then
on the fiimiture-makers, then on the wholesalers,
then on other business men. I spent several days
in this quest. To each one I said, "Please write to
I. H. Rich, care Swift & Company, Union Stock
Yards, Chicago, and say what you think of Claude
Hopkins as a writer and an advertising man." That
started a flood of letters.

Then I went to the Grand Rapids Herald and said :
"I want to write for you a daily two-column article

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LAROBR PIELD8 53

on advertising. It will cost you nothing and it will
educate your advertisers. All I ask is that you let
me sign the articles and that you publish my picture
in them."

They agreed, so every evening after oflBce hours
I wrote that two-column article. Then I took it to
the office on my bicycle to reach the paper before
midnight. Every article was addressed in reality
to Swift & Company, to Mr. I. H. Rich. It was
written to show what I knew about advertising.
As the articles appeared I mailed them to Mr. Rich.

After three weeks of that daily bombardment I
received a telegram from Swift & Company asking
me to come to Chicago. I went, but with little idea
of accepting the position. I had come to realize
more than ever that I would be lonesome away from
Grand Rapids. But I had to complete my conquest,
so I went.

We had not discussed salary — ^that was too re-
mote. So my idea of escape was to ask a salary
higher than they would pay. I did so, and Mr.
L. F. Swift, now president of the company, refused
to consider it. He had read none of my letters or
articles. I had made no impression on him; all he
considered was my salary demand.

Mr. Rich then asked for another conference in the
afternoon, and took me out to lunch. At the table
he talked like a father. He pointed out the narrow
sphere I had, and always would have, where I was.'
Swift & Company were o£Fering me one of the great-

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54 MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

est positions in my line. They had a score of lines
to advertise. There I would have an unlimited
scope. He pictured the folly of refusing such an
opportunity, and I yielded to his persuasions. After
lunch I went back and accepted the salary offered,
promising to start in three weeks.

The next morning in Grand Rapids I went up to
my home and saw the family on the porch. There
were shade trees in front and many flowers in the
yard. I contrasted that setting with the stockyards,
where the outlook covered only dirty pens filled
with cattle and hogs. The way to the oflicc led
through a half-mile of mud. Then I regretted my
action. The price seemed too great to pay. Had
I not given my word I would have turned back that
morning to quiet insignificance. And now, after
looking back thirty years, I think I would turn
back this morning.

In three weeks I went to Chicago. I secured a
room on Forty-third Street, because the cars there
ran to the stockyards. The room was a small one,
dark and dingy. I had to climb over my trunk to
get into bed. On the dresser I placed a picture of
my home in Grand Rapids, but I had to turn that
picture to the wall before I could go to sleep.
I The next morning I went to the stockyards and
presented myself for work. Mr. Rich was away,
so I was referred to Mr. L. F. Swift, now president
of the company. He did not remember me.

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LAROBR . FIELDS 55

I said, **Thrcc weeks ago you employed me as
advertising manager.**

**Is that so?** he repKed. **I had entirely forgot-
ten. If you are really employed here, go out and
talk with Howes.'*

Consider that reception for a lonely man, already
half discouraged. For a proud man, who considered
himself important. For a man from a small city
where everybody knew him, his importance and
his place.

But I was more unwelcome than I supposed. Mr.
G. F. Swift, then head of the company, was in
Europe when I was employed. It was his first va-
cation, and he could not endure it, so he hurried
back. At once he asked what I was doing in his
office. When told that I was there to spend his
money, he took an intense dislike to me, and it
never changed.

He set out at once to make my position untenable.
The business he headed had been built without the
use of print. He catered to nobody, asked nobody's
patronage. He had gained what he could by sheer
force. He had the same contempt for an advertising
man that a general must have for a poet.

He made my way very hard. I had come from
gentle surroundings, from an office filled with
friends. There I entered the atmosphere of war.
There every conception of business was conflict,
inside and outside the office. We have nothing left

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56 MY LIFE IN ADVB&TISINO

in big business today to compare with the packing
business of thirty years ago.

Mr. G. F. Swift was a deeply religious man. I
am sure he did the right as he knew it. But he was
an autocrat in the days when business was much
like war. No one gave quarter or asked it. That
was the attitude which later brought business into
bad repute.

Mr. Swift was a fighter, and I became one of his
targets. I typified a foolish outgo. I had been
installed in his absence to waste his hard-earned
money. So I suffered the consequences. Among the
many who trembled at his word, I always trembled
most.

Mr. Swift's conception of advertising referred in
particular to signs on refrigerator cars. They went
everywhere. Good advertising there consisted of
light letters. I could never get them light enough.

Next came the annual calendars. He had very
decided ideas about them, and they never agreed
with mine. Nor could I carry out his ideas to his
satisfaction.

One day he asked me to photograph a side of beef
for hanging in his beef houses. I recognized this as
a crucial test, so I called in a half-dozen photog-
raphers. The best sides of beef in storage were
brought out for photographing. The next morning
I sent him some dozens of pictures and asked him to
make his choice.

Soon I saw Mr. Swift charging from his office,

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LARGER FIELDS 57

with his arms full of photographs, like a mad bull.
He started for my desk, but stopped some twenty
feet away and threw the pictures at me.

Then he came up and said: "Do you think that
those things look like sides of beef? Where are
the colors in them? Do you think that anybody
wants black beef?'*

I explained that photography could not show
colors. Then he said, ''I know a girl who can paint
beef in colors. I will take my job to her.*' There-
after that girl held a place in our office much better
than mine.

The chief advertising project of Swift & Company
in those days was Cotosuet. The N. K. Fairbank
Company were advertising Cottolene, and making
considerable strides. My chief problem in those
days was to fight that competition.

Cottolene and Cotosuet were both brands of com-
pound lard. They consisted of a mixture of cotton-
seed oil and beef suet. They were oflFered as sub-
stitutes for lard, and for butter in cooking, at a
much lower price.

Cottolene, being the original product, had at-
tained a big start and advantage. But it was ex-
pected that I, as an advertising man, could quickly
overtake and defeat it. It was something like
combating Ivory Soap with another white soap
today. ' - ^

We opened a sales office in Boston and started
advertising in New England. We had hardly

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58 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TISINO

Started when Mr. L. F. Swift came to my desk one
day. He said: * 'Father is very nervous about this
money spent in advertising. He considers it an
utter waste. The results so far are not very encour-
aging. You have been here nearly six weeks, but
our sales on Cotosuet have hardly increased at all."

I had no need to explain to him. He knew that
advertising had hardly started. But I saw that I
had to help him out by making some quick show-
ing.

That night after dinner I paced the streets. I
tried to analyze myself. I had made a great success
in Grand Rapids; I was making a fizzle here. What
were the reasons? What was there I did in the old
field which I could apply to Swift & Company's
problems?

At midnight, on Indiana Avenue, I thought of an
idea. In Grand Rapids I created sensations, I pre-
sented enticing ideas. I did not say to people, ' 'Buy
my brand instead of the other fellow's." I oflFered
them inducements which naturally led them to buy.

Why not apply those principles to Cotosuet?
Rothschild & Company were then completing a new
store. They would have an opening in two weeks.
I knew Charles Jones, the advertising manager, and
I decided to go to him and offer a sensation for his
opening.

The next day I did so. His grocery department
was on the fifth floor and it included a large bay
window. I urged him to let me have that window

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LARGER FIELDS 59

for a unique exhibit. **I will build there/* I said,
**the largest cake in the world. I will advertise
the cake in a big way in the newspapers. I will
make that," I promised, **the greatest feature in
your opening.'*

My idea was to make a cake with Cotosuet in
place of butter. Then to argue that a product better
than butter was certainly better than lard.

Mr. Jones accepted my proposition. Then I went
next door to H. H. Kohlsaat & Co., bakers, and
asked them to bake the cake. I told them to make
the special tins which were necessary, to decorate
the cake in a magnificent way, and to build it as
high as the room. They did so.

At the time of the opening I inserted half-page
ads. in the newspapers announcing the biggest cake
in the world. That was on Saturday, and that
night the store was to open. After dinner I started
down to see the cake myself, but the cars stopped on
State Street long before they reached the store. I
stepped out and saw before me a perfect sea of
people. After a long time of struggle I reached
the doors. At every door I found a policeman.
The authorities had closed the doors because the
crowd was too large to admit.

During the next week, 105,000 people climbed
four flights of stairs to that cake. The elevators
could not carry them. There I had demonstrators
to offer samples of the cake. Then we had prizes

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6o MY LIFB IN ADVBRTI8INO

to offer to those who guessed nearest to the weight,
but every guesser had to buy a pail of Cotosuet.

As a result of that week, G)tosuet was placed on
a profit-paying basis in Chicago. We gained many
thousands of users.

Then I organized a group to carry our plan through
the Eastern sutes. The group consisted of a baker
and decorator, three demonstrators and myself. We
went to Boston and arranged an exhibit at the store
of Cobb, Bates & Yerxa, but they threw us out the
first forenoon. The crowd was so great that it
destroyed all their chance to do business.

We went along the New York Central, and in
every city we learned new ways to increase the re-
sults of our efforts. We went to the leading baker
and showed him newspaper clippings of what we
had done elsewhere. We offered to let him build
the cake, and be advertised as its creator, on con-
dition that he bought a carload of Cotosuet. Some-
times two carloads. We went to the leading
grocery and proved the results of our cake-show.
Then we offered to place the cake in his store if he
ordered a carload in tins.

v^ Wherever we went we sold enough Cotosuet to
insure us a profit in advance. Then we hired boys
on Main Street to cry out with their papers, "* Eve-
ning News. All about the Big Cake. *' As a result,
we mobbed the stores where the cake was on dis-
play. And in every city we esublished thousands
of regular users.

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LAROBR FIBLD8 6i

At last wc came to Cleveland, where they had a
public market. We could not there sell a carload
to a grocer. But we arranged with the market to
give us their band for a week, also their newspaper
space. As a result, half the policemen in Qeveland
were called there to keep the crowd moving. Ropes
were stretched through the market. I doubt if the
stalls sold much that week, but we certainly sold
Cotosuet.

When I returned to Chicago, Mr. L. F. Swift
said: *'That is the greatest advertising stunt I have
ever known. You have made good, both with
father and with me. * '

Thus I won out with Swift & Company.

That, many say, was not advertising. Advertis-
ing to them is placing some dignified phrases in
print. But commonplace dignity doesn't get far.
Study salesmen, canvassers, and fakers if you want
to know how to sell goods. No argument in the
world can ever compare with one dramatic demon-
stration.

I have no sympathy with those wtio feel that fine
language is going to sell goods at a profit. I have
listened to their arguments for hours. They might
as well say that full dress is an excellent diving
suit. No dilettantes have any chance in prying
money out of pockets. The way to sell goods is to
sell them. The way to do that is to sample and*
demonstrate, and the more attractive you can make
your demonstration the better it will be for you.

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6z MY LIPE IN ADVBRTISINO

The men who succeed in advertising are not the
highly-bred, not the men careful to be unobtrusive
and polite, but the men who know what arouses
enthusiasm in simple people. The difference is
the difference between Charlie Chaplin and Robert
ManteU, or ''After the Ball'' and "The Moonlight
Sonata." If we are going to sell, we must cater to
the millions who buy.

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Chapter Six
PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP

DESPITE my success, there came a time with
Swift & Company when my advertising ap-
peal lost all its persuasiveness. Cottolene cut prices.
One of our largest fields was with bakers. They
knew Cotosuet to be identical with Cottolene, and
they refused to pay a higher price.

Swifc & Company's business had been founded
and developed on competition. They met any price
that was offered. So they could not conceive of a
product of theirs demanding a price above market.

I had fixed a price on Cotosuet one-half cent a
pound above Cottolene. That price was essential
to profit. I could obtain it from consumers, but the
bakery trade formed a large part of our business.
We had a branch office in Boston, for instance,
costing $i,ooo per month. Six salesmen went out
from there, and Mr. Aldrich was in charge. We
gave them little credit for sales made to grocers, as
a result of the demand we created. And their sales
to bakers, at our higher price, became almost nil.

One day Mr. Swift called me to his office. He
said: "Here is a letter from Boston. I agree with
it entirely. They are not making sales, and they
cannot make sales, at the price you have fixed on
our product."

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64 MY LIPB IN ADVERTISING

**Thcy arc wrong," I replied. "Real salesman-
ship has no regard for price. I am selling to con-
sumers at our over-price. Why can*t they sell to
bakers?"

Mr. Swift said: "Qui you do it?"

I replied that I could. I could sell to bakers just
as well as consumers on the principles I advised.

"Then, ' ' he asked, "when can you go to Boston ?' '

"I can go in two weeks," I said. "I have much
work to clean up."

"Can you go this afternoon?" he asked. "This
is an urgent matter. We are losing much money in
Boston. I want to know the right and wrong be-
fore we go much farther."

"I will go this afternoon," I said. I walked out
to my desk and found it piled high with imporunt
matters. I told my assistant to care for them. Then
I picked up the proof of a street-car card which had
just been submitted — a picture of a pie — and placed
it under my arm.

When I arrived in Boston I met Mr. Aldrich, dis-
couraged and C3aiical. He told me what he had
told Mr. Swift. I was a theorist in business. No
one could hope to sell Cotosuet at a price above
Cottolene, and no salesman did.

I said, "Tell me some one you can*t sell."

Mr. Aldrich replied: "They are all about us.
We can't sell anyone."

"Tell me one concern," I said.

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PB&80NAL SALESMANSHIP 65

••Well, take the Fox Pie Company of Chelsea,"
he replied. •'They are the largest around us/'

•'Lead me at once to them/' I said.

Mr. Aldrich did so. When we arrived we found
Mr. Fox in his shirt sleeves in the bakery. We
waited for him awhile.

-When he came up to greet us I found him in a
rather cantankerous mood. He was busy and he
knew we had nothing he desired. So he decided to
dispose of us, as I saw, in short order.

But I greeted him like a contemporary. I said:
•'I am advertising manager of Swift & Company.
I have come from Chicago to consult you about a
card."

I placed the card some fifty feet away, then I
stepped back and asked him to regard it.

•'That card," I said, "is intended to picture the
ideal pie. It has cost us a great deal of money. The
artist charged us $Z50 for the drawing. Then it
has to be engraved on stone. Those colors you see
there are produced by twelve separate printings on
stone." I explained the process as well as I knew
it. And, being different from baking, he was in-
terested in it.

I told him that before printing those cards I
wanted to obtain his approval. And I did. He was
a pie expert, and I wanted his ideas on that pie.

Instantly he changed from baker to a critic. We
began to discuss that pie card. When I found fault
with any feature, he defended it. Never before, in

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66 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

all probability, had he been asked to appear in the
role of adviser. He, like all of us, enjoyed the new
situation.

Finally he insisted that the pic card represented
a pie at its best. Nothing could be done to improve
it. He would have the whole trade of Boston if
he could make pies like that.

Then I urged him to have it. I said: **How many
stores in Boston are selling Fox Pies?"

"About one thousand," he replied.

I said: "I will furnish you a card like that to go
in every store. You have been good to me. Let
me do something to reciprocate. I must advertise
Cotosuet on those cards. Let me say on each that
nothing but Swift's Cotosuet is used in the shorten-
ing for Fox's pies. I will furnish you 150 of those
cards with every car load of Cotosuet that you order
now."

He accepted that oflFer and ordered four carloads
to get one thousand cards.

Then I went to Providence, and at Altman's
bakery made the same arrangement. Then to New
Haven, then Hartford, Springfield, and all big New
England cities. In not one did I fail to sell the
leading baker a large supply of Cotosuet. He paid
a higher price than for Cottolene, but he secured a
great advantage.

I returned to Boston with more orders for Coto-
suet than six salesmen had sold in six weeks. But
Mr. Aldrich was scornful.

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PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP 67

"You have not been selling Cotosuet," he said,
*Tou have simply sold a pie card. Now let me
see what you can do where you have no such ad-
vantage. One of our largest customers is Mans-
field Baking Company, Springfield, Mass. There
you have given exclusive rights to your pie card.
I would like to see what you can do with ordinary
salesmanship.'*

I went at once to Springfield, and reached there
late Saturday afternoon. I went to the Mansfield
bakery, and found Teddy Mansfield in his shirt
sleeves, working. I waited until he was done.
Then I said; "Teddy, I have an invitation to the
Commercial Club banquet tonight. I am lonesome
and I don't want to go alone. They will let me
bring a guest. I want you to go with me."

Teddy rebelled. He said he had never been to a
banquet. He had no suitable clothes. I told him
that I was wearing just what I had on then. So
he finally consented.

That was a great night for Teddy Mansfield. He
met for the first time with the leading men of his
city. He enjoyed himself, and when we parted he
was very friendly to me.

That night at the hotel door I said; "I am coming
to see you Monday morning to present something
of great interest to you."

"Please don't come," he said, "You have been
so kind tonight that I can't refuse you anything.
But I am loaded with Cotosuet. I have forty

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68 MY LIPB IN ADVB&TI8INO

tierces in my cellar, and I cannot afford to use them,
as you know. I shall be glad to see you, but don*t
ask me to buy Cotosuet."

On Monday morning I found Teddy Mansfield,
as usual, in his shirt sleeves. I said: 'Teddy, I
don't want to talk Cotosuet to you, but I have a
proposition. I am advertising manager of Swift &
Company. I can do in some ways what no one else
can do. You are known in Springfield, but nobody
knows you outside. I want to suggest a way to
advertise Mansfield's pies all the way from here to
Chicago."

Then I unfolded my plan. If he would order two
carloads of Cotosuet, I would place a sign on both
sides of the cars. That sign would announce that
all that Cotosuet was to be used in Mansfield's pies
in Springfield, Mass. "Not on one side of the
car," I said, "but on both sides, so everyone for
nine hundred miles, on both sides of the tracks, will
know you."

That idea appealed to Teddy, as like ideas have
appealed to countless advertisers before and since.
It was folly, some say, but no more folly than all
the ideas of "keeping your name before the people."
Teddy typified the average advertiser of those days,
in his desire simply to spread his fame. He accepted
my offer, and in one week the cars arrived. I was
there to greet them with him. I have rarely seen
a man so pleased as was Teddy Mansfield when he
saw those cars with signs which had advertised

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PE&80NAL SALESMANSHIP 69

Mansfield's pies all the nine hundred miles from
Chicago.

I had sold more Cotosuet in one week than six
salesmen had sold in six weeks. Not one buyer had
complained about the price. Mr. Swift wired me to
fire the whole Boston force, but I asked him to wait
until I returned and explained my methods to him.

When I met Mr. Swift I said: •'I did not sell
G)tosuet, did not talk Cotosuet. I sold pie cards
and schemes, and Cotosuet went with them."

"Then I wish you would teach our other men to
do that."

"It cannot be taught," I replied. And I am still
of that opinion. The difiference lies in the basic
conception of selling. The average salesman openly
seeks favors, seeks profit for himself. His plea is,
• 'Buy my goods, not the other fellow's. ' * He makes
a selfish appeal to selfish people, and of course he
meets resistance.

I was selling service. The whole basis of my talk
was to help the baker get more business. The
advantage to myself was covered up in my efiforts
to please him.

I have always applied that same principle to ad-
vertising. I never ask people to buy. I rarely even
say that my goods are sold by dealers, I seldom
quote a price. The ads. all offer service, perhaps a
free sample or a free package. They sound al-
truistic. But they get a reading and get action from

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70 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

people seeking to serve themselves. No selfish
appeal can do that.

Today that same principle is widely applied to
house-to-house canvassing. Sellers of brushes call
to oflFer the housewife a brush as a gift. Sellers of
aluminum ware present a dish. Sellers of coffee call
at first with a half-pound free package to try. They
are always welcome. The housewife is all smiles
and attention. Then, in the natural reaction, she
strives to find a way to reciprocate the courtesy by
buying.

Makers of vacuum sweepers offer to send one for
a week's use in housecleaning. Makers of electric
motors offer to send one to run the sewing-machine
or the fan for a week. Cigar-makers send out
boxes of cigars to anyone who asks. They say;
•'Smoke ten, then return the balance if you desire.
The test will cost you nothing. ' * All sorts of things
are sent on approval. Nearly everything sold is
sold subject to return. All good salesmanship, in
print or in person, is based on some appealing ser-
vice.

Good salesmen study to make their appeals in-
viting. One says; "Send me the money and I will
return it if the article is not satisfactory. ' * Another
says; "Send no money. Let me send the article for
trial, then remit or return it, just as you desire."

I buy many books by mail. In nearly every issue
of certain magazines I see descriptions of books I
may want. The ads. do not say, ' 'Send the money. * *

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PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP 71

If they did my purchases would be few. My check
book is at the office. By the next day, in all prob-
ability, the book would be forgotten. But they
o£fer to send me the book to examine. I simply
mail the coupon. I tear it out at once, put it in my
pocket, and mail it the next morning.

In my early years in advertising those ideas of
salesmanship were new. I was, I believe, among
the first to apply them. No doubt I originated many
of their applications. I never tried to sell an3rthing,
even in my retail-store advertising. I always oflfered
a favor. Now I talk of service, profit, pleasure,
gifts, not any desires of my own.

The house-to-house canvasser must apply those
principles, else his sales are limited. So must the
mail-order advertiser, whose results are known.
But the advertiser who proceeds without knowing
results often ignores these principles. Everywhere
we see advertisers merely crying a name. They say :
•'Buy my brand. Be sure to get the original.*'
Their whole evident desire is some selfish advan-
tage. Such advertising may sometimes pay to an
extent, but it never can pay like appeals which
appear unselfish. k

But Swift & Company refused to give an3rthing
away. I could never sample their products. We
advertised wool soap, washing powder, breakfast
sausage, hams and bacon and butterine, and we
were reasonably successful. But I came to realize
that under their restrictions any real success was

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7X MY LIPB IN ADVEETISINO

impossible. All the years since have confirmed mj
opinion. The packers make many lines which can
be profitably advertised. But I do not know of an
advertising success made by a packing house, with
the possible exception of Cudahy's Dutch Cleanser.
There were special reasons for that. All their ad-
vertising opportunities have been lost through sel-
fishness. They were bred in the idea that business
is a fight, that sales must be forced, that competi-
tion must be undersold. Those ideas have been
modified materially, but never so much as to make
any packer an advertiser. That is, no advertising
success in the packing line that I know of matches
the opportunity.

In my day in the stockyards, about all my con*
ceptions of selling in print were taboo. I saw that
I had to escape those restrictions to accomplish my
ambitions* So I began to look about.

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Chaffer Seven
MEDICAL ADVERTISING

NO W I come to a class of advertising of which I
no longer approve. Thirty years ago, medicine
advertising offered the ad.-writer his greatest op-
portunity. It formed the supreme test of his skill.
Medicines were worthless merchandise until a de«
mand was created. They could not well be inven-
toried on the druggists' shelves at even one cent a
bottle. Everything depended on the advertising.

The test of an ad.-writer in medicine advertising
was as severe as in mail-order advertising today.
He was shown up quickly by the item of profit and
loss. Either he sold the goods at a profit or he did
not. Salesmen, dealers, or clerks could not help
him. One may sell flour, oatmeal, or soap by
loading a dealer up or by offering inducements.
Many things may contribute in selling a staple. It
is sometimes hard to measure just what advertising
does. Not so in a medicine. Advertising must do
all. .

Because of that fact, the greatest advertising men
of my day were schooled in the medicine field. All
of them have graduated. But all of them realize
that medical advertising placed men on their mettle.
It weeded out the incompetents, and gave scope and
prestige to those who survived, as few other lines

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74 MY LIPE IN ADVERTI8INO

have done. The only lines today which so try men
in the fire are some forms of mail-order advertising.

Medicines in those days dominated the advertis-
ing field. The best magazines accepted them.
Almost nobody questioned their legitimacy. No
more rhan they questioned railroad rebates, or
passes to employees, in my packing-house experi-
ence. We must remember, in reviewing medicine
advertising, how experience and education changes
ideas and principles.

Every evil of the past had its logical defense.
The medicine-makers included many high-minded
men. They felt that they were serving humanity
by oflFering good remedies for common conditions
at very modest cost. They were aiding those who
could not aflford physicians. There was much
reason in their arguments. Every medicine-maker
received thousands of testimonials. And I still
believe that those medicine-makers did far more
good than harm. Even though the good came
largely through mental impressions.
f But medical science advanced. Doctors them*
selves turned largely away from drugs. We came
to realize that ailing people should have a diag-
nosis. The real trouble should be located, instead
of quelling symptoms. In a large percentage of
cases it was unwise to advise self-medication.

I came to that conclusion many years ago. I
have not advertised a medicine, save for simple
ailments, for seventeen years or over. I would not

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MBDICAL ADVBBLTI8INO 75

do SO under any circumstances. Just as I write
this, I am refusing an appropriation of $900,000 to
advertise a medicine. I stand as strongly as anyone
today against advertising anything which opposes
public good as we see it now.

So please remember that what I recite here oc-
curred many years ago. It accorded with existing
principles and practices. I have never known higher
minded men than those who engaged in these
enterprises. I am dealing with advertising as it
applies to all conditions and all times. What
should be advertised for the common good forms
an entirely different question.

While with Swift & Company I wrote an article
on patent-medicine advertising. It reached the
attention of Dr. Shoop in Racine, Wisconsin. He
was selling medicines through agents. He had no
drug-store trade. The agency business was dying,
so he was seeking a way to place his line on the
drug-store shelves. He wrote me to come and see
him.

I was discouraged with food products advertised
under packing-house restrictions. I knew that
medicine offered the greatest opportunity to an
advertising man. So I went to Racine, talked with
Dr. Shoop, and finally accepted what he offered.

I found a line of remedies sold through agents
only. Not a bottle was in drug stores. The or-
dinary agent could not survive, so the business was
dying fast. My duty was to create a demand which

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would bring the sales to drug stores. Not one man
in a million could have met that test without the
experience in retail selling which I had attained.

Night after night Dr. Shoop and I discussed the
situation. I told him all I had done by talking
ideas not connected with the product. Then we
evolved the idea of a druggist's signed guaranty.
People were not buying medicine, they were buying
results. Many an advertiser a thousand miles away
offered to guarantee results, but the guarantors were
strangers. I conceived the idea of having a neigh*
borhood druggist, to whom people paid their
money, sign the guaranty.

First I tried this plan out on a cough cure. It
brought enormous results. Here was one cough
cure which anyone could buy without risk. If it
brought the results we promised, it was worth
many times its cost. If it failed, it was free. No
cough cure on the market then could compete with
that.

Later I tested the same plan on other remedies —
on Dr. Shoop*s Restorative, on his Rheumatic Cure.
It worked like magic. Others made claims, but we
offered a certainty. And we secured most of the
trade.

Our guaranties were based on a purchase of six
bottles for five dollars. Few users purchased that
amount. But the guaranty gave them confidence
in every one-bottle purchase. Nobody in our field
had any chance to compete with us.

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MBDICAL ADVBETI8INO 77

Wc were very cautious in those days. We did
not venture into newspaper advertising. We dis-
tributed books from house to house in cities of over
1,500 population. We secured mailing lists of
heads of families in every village or hamlet below
that. Those were the days before rural delivery.
I had complete mailing list of all heads of families
in some 86,000 post offices of the United States and
Gmada.

The methods we used then have little interest
now. Conditions have changed. We have learned
that newspapers offer the cheapest distribution of
any offer we wish to make. But for years we mailed
and distributed some 400,000 books per day.

Later we graduated from that and got into the
newspapers. We secured results at one^third our
former cost. We came to spend $400,000 per year
in newspaper advertising, and the results at that
time made me the leader in proprietary advertising.

What I wish to emphasize here is that my pro-
posals were always altruistic. I was always offering
service. Anyone could try what I offered without
risk. It either brought results beyond what I
promised or the cost was nil. There was nothing
in the field in those days to match any offer like
that.

In advertising and merchandising, that is some-
thing always to consider. One must outbid all
others in some way. He must offer advantages in
qualities, service, or terms, or he must create a

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78 MT LIFE IN ADVB&TI8INO

seeming advantage by citing facts which others
fail to cite. Crying a name or brand is not sufficient.
Urging people to buy from you instead of others
goes against the grain. One must know his com-
petition, know what others oflfer, know what
people want. Until one feels sure that the advan-
tages are strongly on his side, it is folly to risk a
battle. One cannot long fool people who are care-
fully spending money. Never pay the price to get
them unless you see clearly how you can keep them.
Don't under-estimate the intelligence and the in-
formation of people who count their pennies.

I spent six and one-half years in Racine. Office
hours began at seven o'clock in the morning. We
knew that extra hours gave us an extra advantage.
And we were competing in one of the hardest fields
that advertising ever knew.

But my day never ended at the office. I had a
typewriter in my home. I considered medicine as
but one item, though a supreme test of advertising
skill. So I devoted the rest of my viking hours
to outside enterprises.

The J. L. Stack Advertising Agency handled the
Dr. Shoop advertising. I arranged with them to
write all of their advertising. Racine was a manu-
facturing center. So I set out to develop, after
office hours, advertising enterprises there. And
from each I learned a great deal.

One of the clients of J. L. Stack was Montgomery,
Ward & G). I wrote and directed their advertising.

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MBDICAL ADVB&TI8INO 79

Many new merchandising plans were inaugurated.
My everlasting argument was against dealing with
people in the mass. For instance, a woman wrote
in about a sewing-machine. She had that, and
nothing else, on her mind.. The general plan
then was to send a catalog, treating all inquiries
alike. I urged that every inquirer should be treated
like a prospect who came to a store.' We had a
special catalog on sewing-machines, showing every
style and price. We sent every inquirer the names
of all in her vicinity who had bought our sewing-
machines. We asked her to see the machines and
to talk with their owners.^

There I learned another valuable principle in
advertising. In a wide-reaching campaign we are
too apt to regard people in the mass. We try to
broadcast our seed in the hope that some part will
take root. That is too wasteful to ever bring a
profit. We must get down to individuals. We
must treat people in advertising as we treat them
in person. Center on their desires. G>nsider the
person who stands before you with ceruin ex-
pressed desires. However big your business, get
down to the units, for those units are all that
make si2e.

Schlitz Beer was another advertising campaign
which I handled for J. L. Stack. Schlitz was then
in fifth place. All brewers at that time were crying
"Pure.** They put the word "Pure" in large
letters. Then they took double pages to put it in

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80 MT LIPB IN ADVBRTI8INO

larger letters. The claim made about as much im-
pression on people as water makes on a duck.

I went to a brewing school to learn the science
of brewing, but that helped me not at all. Then
I went through the brcwerjr. I saw plate-glass
rooms where beer was dripping over pipes, and I
asked the reason for them. They told me those
rooms were filled with filtered air, so the beer could
be cooled in purity. I saw great filters filled with
white-wood pulp. They explained how that
filtered the beer. They showed how they cleaned
every pump and pipe, twice daily, to avoid con-
taminations. How every bottle was cleaned four
times by machinery. They showed me artesian
wells, where they went 4,000 feet deep for pure
water, though their brewery was on LakeMichigan.
They showed me the vats where beer was aged
for six months before it went out to the user.

They took me to their laboratory and showed
me their original mother yeast cell. It had been
developed by i,2joo experiments to bring out the
utmost in flavor. All of the yeast used in making
Schlitz Beer was developed from that original cell.

I came back to the office amazed. I said: "Why
don't you tell people these things? Why do you
merely try to cry louder than others that your beer
is pure? Why don't you tell the reasons?"

/'Why," they said, "the processes we use are
just the same as others use. No one can make good
beer without them."

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MBDICAL ADVB&TI8INO 8z

"But,** I replied, * 'others have never told this
story. It amazes everyone who goes through your
brewery. It will startle everyone in print."

So I pictured in print those plate-glass rooms
and every other factor in purity. I told a story
common to all good brewers, but a story which
had never been told. I gave purity a meaning.
Schlitz jumped from fifth place to neck-and-neck
with first place in a very few months. That cam-
paign remains to this day one of my greatest accom-
plishments. But it also gave me the basis for
many another campaign. Again and again I have
told simple facts, common to all makers in the
line — ^too common to be told. But they have
given the article first allied with them an exclusive
and lasting prestige.

That situation occurs in many, many lines. The
maker is too close to his product. He sees in his
methods only the ordinary. He does not realize
that the world at large might marvel at those
methods, and that facts which seem commonplace
to him might give him vast distinction.

That is a situation which occurs in most adver-
tising problems. The article is not unique. It
embodies no great advantages. Perhaps countless
people can make similar products. But tell the
pains you take to excel. Tell factors and features
which others deem too commonplace to claim.
Your product will come to typify those excellencies.
If others claim them afterward, it will only serve

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8l MY LIFB IN ADVB&TISINO

to advertise you. There are few advertised products
which cannot be imitated. Few who dominate a
field have any exclusive advantage. They were
simply the first to tell certain convincing facts.

Mr. Cyrus W. Curtis, of the Curtis Publishing
Company, told me an interesting incident con-
nected with that Schlitz campaign. He had never
drunk beer, had never admitted the word beer or
wine to the columns of the Ladies* Home Journal.
But he took into the diner on a train a copy of
Life containing one of these Schlitz ads. The ad.
so impressed him that he ordered a bottle of
Schlitz. He wanted to taste a product made under
such purity ideals.

Among my friends in Racine was Jim Rohan.
He was a clerk on small salary. He was in love
with a school-teacher whom his salary did not
permit him to marry. But he had an idea about
incubators. And he felt that exploitation of that
idea would give him money enough to marry.

I told him that I would exploit the idea, and I
did. I read something like seventy-five incubator
catalogs and ads. They were much alike. All the
makers were fawning salesmen trying to urge a
preference. I analyzed the situation and tried to
find a unique method of attack.

I found a practical chicken-raiser, and I asked
permission to write a book in his name. He was
an independent fellow who cared nothing for mere
opinions. So I characterized him in my book.

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MEDICAL ADVERTISING 83

Writing in this man's name, and on £^ts which he
gave me, I asked nobody to buy Racine Incubators.
I simply told his experience. He had tried all sorts
of incubators, and he knew their fallacious claims.
He had settled down to practical money-making,
and these were the methods he used. He would
help and encourage those who wished to follow
him, but he had no sympathy for those who
followed every will-o'-the-wisp-

That plea proved a winner. Most seekers after
incubators wrote for five or six catalogs. They
all read alike, except mine. Here was a rugged
and practical man who cared more for serving than
selling, and the practical people who were seeking
for profit naturally followed him.

But Racine Incubators were high-priced. A
great many converts paused when they compared
the lower prices offered. So I urged Mr. Rohan
to start another company, called the Belle City
Incubator Company, and there to offer incubators
at much lower prices on other inducements.

We followed up inquiries on the Racine line for
ten days. Then, when we saw too great a resist-
ance, we offered the Belle City line. Thus wc
secured a double chance on incubator buyers.
Otherwise, with our best efforts, we could never
have earned a profit. As it was, we built a business
which today is quite extensive. And I know of
no rival of the old times who survived.

We organized and advertised numerous other lines

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84 MY LIFE IN ADVE&TI8INO

in Racine. One was the Racine Bach Gibinet, one
was Racine Refrigerators. Those were excellent
advertising experiences, because there were no
uncertainties, no repeats.

The Racine Shoe G)mpany manufactured ex-
cellent shoes. They were in the center of the
leather region between Chicago and Milwaukee.
Their shoes at that time sold at an average of $1.15
per pair at wholesale. I organized what I called
the "Racine Club." It sold Racine Shoes to club
members only at advantageous prices. I quoted to
club members $3 per pair delivered, and I offered
the choice of six styles. The shoes cost me an
average of $2.. 13 per pair. The average express
rate was 33 cents per pair. So my clear average
profit was 30 cents per pair. But a membership
cost 13 cents, and no one could buy without having
a membership. The cost of my advertising was
paid by my membership fees. Then with each
pair of shoes I sent twelve memberships with
catalogs, etc. Anyone who sold those twelve
memberships could obtain his shoes at 13 cents
per pair. A membership entitled the bearer to buy
a pair of shoes at $3, with twelve more certificates
worth 13 cents each.

I was offering shoes at $3 which would cost
$3.30 to $3 at the stores. But I offered them to a
limited clientele. None but club members could
buy them. Every buyer, if he chose, could sell
the membership certificates at 13 cents each. If he

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MBDICAL ASVB&nSIKO 85

did so, his shoes would cost him only 15 cents.
When my advertising secured a few buyers, they
became salesmen for me. So a little advertising
created for me an overwhelming trade. It soon
exceeded the capacity of the Racine Shoe Company,
and orders were much delayed.

The fly in this ointment was the fact that shoes
did not always fit, and I guaranteed a fit. The
returns absorbed most of my profits. But I learned
a new angle in selling. I learned how customers,
whether in direct selling or otherwise, could
influence future returns. ,

All that time I was continuing to advertise retail
sales the country over. I experimented locally
with every sort of sale. Whenever I found a plan
which brought large returns, I told other dealers
about it. This was all night work. I never thought
of sleep. My whole ambition was to find ways to
lead people to buy, and I found them in plenty.
What I found then has been the foundation of all
the success I have gained.

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Chapter Eight
MY LIQUOZONE EXPERIENCE

MY Y E A R S in Racine gave me unique experi-
ence in advertising proprietaries, and brought
me wide reputation. My methods were new.
Testimonials had been almost universal in those
lines. I published none. Reckless claims were
common. My ads. said in effect, "Try this cough
remedy; watch the benefits it brings. It cannot
harm, for no opiates are in it. If it succeeds, the
cough will stop. If it fails, it is free. Your own
druggist signs the warrant." k

The appeal was overwhelming, almost resistless.
Ever since then my chief study has been to create
appeals like that. When we make an offer one
cannot reasonably refuse, it is pretty sure to gain
acceptance. And however generous the offer, how-
ever open to imposition, experience proves that
very few will cheat those who offer a square deal.
Try to hedge or protect yourself, and human nature
likes to circumvent you. But remove all restric-
tions and say, "We trust you," and human nature
likes to justify that trust. All my experience in
advertising has shown that people in general are
honest.

A ceruin man in Chicago had'^made a small
fortune out of the Oliver typewriter, but the line

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MY LIQUOZONE BZPBRIBNCE 87

was not to his liking. He was a natural advertiser,
and had long been searching for the product.

While he was building a factory in Montreal,
a number of men came to tell him of a germicide
made in Toronto. It was called "Powley's Liqui-
fied Ozone." Many institutions in Gmada were
indorsing and employing it. And, without any
advertising, countless people had learned of it
and used it with remarkable results.

Finally this man was induced to go to Toronto
to investigate the product. He found a gas-made
germicide, harmless for internal use. He inter-
viewed hundreds who had tried it, including
hospitals and Githolic institutions, and became
enthused.

He bought the product for $100,000, then
changed the name to Liquozone. Then he started
to advertise and market it. He sought out an able
advertising man and made a year's contract with
him. The next year he selected another man. In
four years he tried out four advertising men who
had convinced him of their ability, but the result
was utter failure. All the money invested in the
business had been dissipated, llie company was
heavily in debt. Its balance sheet showed a net
worth of some $45,000 less than nothing. Which
shows how rare is the experience and the ability
to advertise a proprietary product.

Still this determined advertiser remained un*
discouraged. He believed in his product, and he

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felt that some nun somewhere knew how to make
it win. He said, **We will ay it one year more,
and this time we'll find the man."

On the last day of the fourth year he called on
all the leading advertising agents of Chicago, and
he asked each one to name the best man they knew
of for a product of that kind. As I was at that time
the particular star in that field, I believe all of
them named me.

His last call was on J. L. Stack, and he put the
same question to him. Just then a telegram came
in from me, accepting an invitation to dine with
Mr. Stack that New-year's Eve. Mr. Stack showed
the telegram and said: "That is the man, of course.
No doubt others have told you. But his employer
is my client. I can do nothing to harm his interests.
Hopkins is my friend, and I never could advise
him to consider your hopeless proposition.** r ;

The advertiser replied: *'If Hopkins is the man
you say, he can probably take care of himself. Let
me dine with you tonight and meet him.**

That was my first contact with Liquo2one. Its
promoter was a charming man. His powers of
persuasion were almost resistless. So, against my
wishes, he induced me to stay over and meet him
the next day.

That was New-year*s Day. I wanted to be at
home. The Liquo2one office where we met was
a dingy affair. The floors and the desks were rough
pine. The heat came from a rusty, round, wood-

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MY LIQUQZONE BXPB&IEKCB 89

burning stove- The surroundings were dishearten-
ing, the company was bankrupt. I resented being
kept in Chicago for New-year's Day on such a
proposition. So our interview was neither pleasant
nor encouraging.

But the man who could smile and start over,
after four years of failure, was not to be blocked
by my attitude. In a few days he followed me to
Racine. Then he asked me to accompany him on
a three-day trip to Toronto. I accepted for the
pleasure of his company and because I wanted a
vacation.

In Toronto he placed at my disposal a vehicle
and a guide. For three days I visited institutions
and people who had seen the results of Liquozone.
I had never heard such stories as they told. At
the end of the third day I said: "I have found here
a still greater reason why I cannot join with you.
I am not a big enough man to tell the world about
that product. I cannot do it justice. So I beg you
again to forget me.'*

But the man was not to be denied. In a few days
he came again to Racine, and we discussed the
project all night. At four o'clock in the morning,
worn out by importunity, impressed by the argu-
ment of duty, I accepted his meager proposals.

I was to be given no salary, because there was
no money to pay salaries. In lieu of that, I was
to have a one-fourth interest in a bankrupt con-
cern. I was to leave my beautiful offices and ukc

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90 MY LIFB IN AOVB&TI8INO

a pine desk on Kin^ie Street. I was to leave my
friends and go out among strangers. I was to
exchange my apartments in a hotel on Lake
Michigan for a dingy $45-per-month flat in Chicago,
where my wife had to do her own work. I was
to walk to the office to save street-car fare, so my
savings might be conserved. I had a steam auto-
mobile, the first in Racine and the joy of my leisure.
I had to leave that.

Friends gave me farewell parties, but the con-
versation at all of them centered on my foolishness.
A delegation was sent to ride with me to Chicago,
and to argue against my folly all the way. My
closest friend repudiated me entirely. He said
that good sense was a prime requisite in a friend.
[ I am sure that few men ever entered a business
adventure imder darker skies. But I want to say
here that every great accomplishment of my life
has been won against such opposition. Every
move that led upward, or to greater happiness or
content, has been fought by every friend I had.
Perhaps because they were selfish and wanted me
to stay with them.

I have met other great emergencies, more im-
portant than money or business. I have always
had to meet them alone. I have had to decide for
myself, and always against tremendous opposition.
Every great move I have made in life has been
ridiculed and opposed by my friends. The greatest
winnings I have made, in happiness, in money or

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MY LIQU02X)NB EXPB&IBNCE 91

conceat, have been accomplished amid almost
universal scorn.

But I have reasoned in this way: The average
man is not successful. We meet few who attain
their goal, few who are really happy or content.
Then why should we let the majority rule in
matters affecting our lives?

Success has come to me in sufficient measure,
happiness in abundance, and absolute content.
Not one of those blessings would have come to
me had I followed the advice of my friends.

As a result, I never give advice. We have our
own lives to live, our own careers to make. We
have no way of measuring others' desires and
capacities. Some are weak. A discouraging word
at a critical moment may change their entire
course. Then the one who gives that word incurs
the responsibility. I court no obligations of that
kind. Advertising teaches us how fallible are our
judgments, even in things we know best. We have
nowhere near an even chance when we attempt to
give advice.

I went into Liquo2one under the circumstances
stated. I was playing a desperate game. Four
men in four years had failed utterly. Yet on this
dubious venture I was staking all I had.

Night after night I paced Lincoln Park, trying
to evolve a plan. I held to my old conceptions.
Serve better than others, offer more than others,
and you are pretty sure to win.

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One ffloraing I came to the office and said: '1
have the winning idea. Let us buy the first fifty-
cent bottle. Then, to all who accept, let us offer
a guaranty on six dollar bottles. We pay for the
first bottle. If that test leads one to continue, we
take the risk on the rest.'*

My associate was appalled. He said: *'We are
bankrupt now. Your proposition will throw us
into chaos.'*

But I obtained his permission to try my plan in
a dozen small Illinois cities. We offered a fifty-
cent bottle free. To each inquirer we sent an order
on a ceruin local druggist for the bottle, and said,
•'We will pay the price."

Then we sent to each inquirer a guaranty offering
six dollar bottles for five dollars. The druggist
would sign the warrant. If results from those six
bottles proved unsatisfactory, every penny would
be returned.

G>nsider how irresistible was such a proposition.
A fifty-cent bottle free. Then a five-dollar lot
under warrant. "Just say to your druggist that
you are dissatisfied, and your money will be re-
turned without argument.**

I had a proposition which no reasonable person
could refuse. As most people are reasonable, I
knew that most people in need would accept it.
My offer was impregnable.

We found in those test cities that our inquiries
for jfree bottles cost us x8 cents each. We waited

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MT LIQUOZONE BZPB&IBNCB 93

thirty days, and we found that our sale was 90
cents per inquirer. The profit on our sales far more
than paid die advertising before the bills were
due. And the claims made under our guaranty
amounted to less than z per cent on our sales.

I secured statements from the druggists advertised
citing these results. Then I sent those statements
to other leading druggists, one in each city. I
also recited the results I had obtained for them in
other proprietary lines. With each letter I in-
closed a contract. It specified the advertising to
be done. It promised that all inquiries for the free
bottle would be referred one ceruin store. The
condition was an order, the amount of which
would more than cover that advertising. The
order was a definite one for a product they had
never seen. But we secured those orders from
leading druggists — all by letter — ^to an amount
exceeding $100,000. Then we took the orders to
our advertising agent. We said: *'We have no
money. We owe you $16,000 which we cannot
pay. But here are orders from good druggists for
$100,000. Let us assign them to you for that
amount of advertising. That is the only way, and
a sure way, to get back what we owe you.*'

The agency accepted that proposition because
they had no alternative. They had too little con«
ccption of proved advertising to realize our position.
They ran the advertising, and the results came
from everywhere, just as they did in our test

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94 MY LIFB IN ADVEHTI8INO

towns. Wc received in the next year over 1,500,000
requests for the free bottle. The average cost per
request was 18 cents, just as it was in our test
cities. The average sale per request was 91 cents,
or just a trifle more than in test cities.

I went with Liquozone in February. Wc had
no money, save enough to pay our rent. In our
first fiscal year, commencing July i, our net profits
were $1,800,000. The next year we invaded
Europe. We established a London office where
we employed 306 people. We built a factory in
France, and fitted out one of the finest offices in
Paris. In two years wc were advertising in seven-
teen languages and were selling Liquozone in
nearly every country of the world.

Germicides are uncertain propositions. New
ones come to supplant the old. We recognized
that, so we moved rapidly. In three years wc
bought for people nearly five million fifty-cent
bottles. We made hay while the sun shone. But
that Liquozone business still exists and it still is
profitable.

What was the secret of that success? Just the
daring which, led me to abandon safety for un-
certainty. Then to buy a fifty-cent bottle for
everyone who sent a coupon. Then to guarantee
results. We had confidence in our product, we had
confidence in people. All the way along, every
man consulted told us we were reckless. Every
director, every adviser, quit us in disgust.

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MY LIQUOZONB BXPBRIBNCB 95

There are other ways, I know, to win in selling
and in advertising. But they are slow and un-
certain. Ask a person to take a chance on you,
and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on
him, and the way is easy.

I have always taken chances on the other fellow.
I have znBlyzcd my proposition until I made sure
that he had the best end of the bargain. Then I
had something people could not well neglect.

I have been robbed in plenty, but the robbery
cost me ten times less than trying to enforce any
safe proposition. Now most leading merchants
have come to the same conclusion. Anything
bought in a leading store is subject to return.
So with goods ordered by mail. And countless
advertisers send out goods to strangers on approval.
They say, 'Try for ten days,*' or, "Examine these
books," or, "Smoke ten of these cigars at our risk.'*
The man who tries to play safety against this
almost universal trend finds himself handicapped.
And the cost of his sales is doubled or trebled,
with the best that he can do.

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Chapter Nim

THE START OP MY SEVENTEEN YEARS
WITH AN ADVERTISING AGENCY

I SPENT five years with Liquozone — ^five
strenuous years. I traveled from office to office,
here and abroad. Every country presented new
problems.

One night in Paris I called in a famous doctor.
He told me I was a nervous wreck. He said, "The
only thing that can save you is to go home and
rest.-

'1 have no home,'* I said. *1 live in a hotel.
This hotel is very much like it. I might as well
stay here.*'

But he insisted. Then I thought of a fruit farm
on Spring Lake, Michigan, which I had so often
plowed as a boy. I remembered one name there,
Robert Ferris. I had heard he had built a hotel.
So I cabled him for accommodations.

I received his reply in New York. The hotel
had been torn down, but he had cottages neatly
furnished with all one could desire. *'A11 you
need to bring is your trunk.*'

So I sent him a check for the cotuge, and I
came on with my trunk. For three months I
basked in the sunshine, sleeping, playing, and
drinking milk. Then I went to Chicago, fully

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resolved to give up those e£Forts which had wrecked
me and to live the quiet life. I invited some friends
to a luncheon to say farewell to business. I was
the gayest of the gay. I intended to keep busy,
but I would write in the future for fame and not
for money.

At the second course a young man came to our
table. He said, "Mr. A. D. Lasker of Lord &
Thomas requests you to call on him this afternoon. * '

I knew what that meant. It meant a new career
of serfdom, as I saw it. I was nervous, distracted,
and ill. It meant night and day service to show
others ways to make more money.

I turned to my friends at the table, and said:
'*Mr. Lasker cannot do this. I have played my
part. I will go to see him because I respect him.
But he can never induce me to enter the vortex of
advertising again.'*

I kept the engagement. Mr. Lasker handed me
a contract from the Van Gunp Packing Company
for $400,000. It was based on the condition that
copy be submitted satisfactory to Mr. Van Camp.

Mr. Lasker said: *1 have searched the country
for copy. This is copy I got in New York, this
in Philadelphia. I have spent thousands of dollars
to get the best copy obtainable. You see the result.
Neither you nor I would submit it. Now I ask
you to help me. Give me three ads, which will
start this campaign, and your wife may go down

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98 MT LIFB IN ADVERTISING

Michigan Avenue to select any car on the street
and have it charged to me.'*

So far as I know, no ordinary human being has
ever resisted Albert Lasker. He has commanded
what he would in this world. Presidents have
made him their pal. Nothing he desired has ever
been forbidden him.

So I jrielded, as all do, to his persuasiveness. I
went to Indianapolis that night. The next day I
started investigators to learn the situation in
respect to pork and beans. I found that 94 per
cent of the housewives baked their own pork and
beans. Only 6 per cent were amenable to any
canned-bean argument. Yet all the advertisers of
pork and beans were merely crying, ''Buy my
brand.'*

I started a campaign to argue against home
baking. Of course I offered samples of faaory
baking. I told of the sixteen hours required to
bake beans at home. I told why home baking
could never make beans digestible. I pictured
home-baked beans, with the crisped beans on top,
the mushy beans below. I told how we selected
our beans, of the soft water we used, of our steam
ovens where we baked beans for hours at 145
degrees. Then I offered a free sample for com-
parison. The result was an enormous success.

After a while, when others followed us, we
suffered substitution. Our rivals tried to meet it
by insisting on their brand. They said in effect.

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•*Givc mc the money which you give to others."
And such appeals fell on deaf ears.

I came out with headlines, *Try Our Rivals, |[
Too." I urged people to buy the brands suggested
and compare them with Van Camp's. That appeal
won over others. If we were certain enough of
our advantage to invite such comparisons, people
were certain enough to buy.

That's another big point to consider. Argue
iui3rthing for your own advantage, and people will
resist to the limit. But seem unselfishly to consider
your customers' desires, and they will naturally
flock to you.

The greatest two faults in advertising lie in
boasts and in selfishness. The natural instinct of
a successful man is to tell what he has accomplished.
He may do that to a dinner partner who cannot get
away. But he cannot do that in print. Nor can
he put over, at a reasonable cost, any selfish under-
taking. People will listen if you talk service to
them. They will turn their backs, and always,
when you seek to impress an advantage for your-
self. This is important. I believe that nine-tenths
of the money spent in advertising is lost because
of selfish purposes blazonly presented.

The majority of advertising, even today, is based
on the plea, "Buy my brand." That plea never
appealed to anybody, and it never will. No grocer
would say, "Come to my store, not the next store."
Even in his simplicity, he is too wise for that. He

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offers some advanuge. Yet countless advertisers
are spending fortunes to make that attempt in
print.

**Mine is the original/' "Be sure to get the
genuine/* All those are simply variations of the
plea, **Give me the money which you give to
others/* It has no effect whatever. All of us have
too many selfish purposes to consider those of
others. A man not willing to bid for patronage
on an altruistic basis has no place in advertising
or in selling. You and I would not cede an ad-
vantage to anyone at our expense. Then don't
expect that others are so different.

Permit me to use this Van Gimp example as
evidence of very common shortcomings. Several
able advertising men created impressive arguments.
But not one of them knew the situation. Had they
gone from house to house, and interviewed house-
wives, they would have reached different conclu-
sions. But that was too much trouble. They
were dealing with a man who knew as little as
they did about the existing conditions. Their
whole idea was to impress that man with some
interesting copy. They never got by A. D. Lasker.
He was practical. He knew that unless he sold
the goods, no temporary advantage could count.
So he sought out, to the best of his ability, the
man who could sell the goods.

Let me pause here to emphasize the fact that
favor does not count. Please the man who knows

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MT 8BVBNTBEN YBAMB lOS

much less than you do about the consumer market,
and you may get a temporary chaiicCf, : :But yqa-
sacrifice all that is real. In the la^t' analysis/ men
are in business for profit, not to ei^plditfthHrVicie^Cs:'-
And their ideas vanish just the moment that profit
fails to show.

I have never had a friend as a client. I have
never had the sympathy of an advertiser in my life.
Still, I respect them for their position. They desire
to exploit their accomplishments, just as I do. But
they represent the seller's side. I must represent
the consumer. And those conceptions are usually
as far apart as the poles.

Van Gimp's pork and beans offered no unique
arguments. They were like other pork and beans.
When we met in the factory and served a half dozen
brands, not a man present could decide which was
Van Camp's.

But we told faas which no one else ever told.
We told of beans grown on special soils. Any good
navy beans must be grown there. We told of vine-
ripened tomatoes, Livingston Stone tomatoes. All
our competitors used them. We told how we
analyzed every lot of beans, as every canner must.

We told of our steam ovens where beans are
baked for hours at 145 degrees. That is regular
canning practice. We told how we boiled beans
in soft water to eliminate the lime which made
skins tough. Our rivals did that also. We pic^
tured the beans, whole, uncrisped, and mealy. Wc

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ZOl MT LIFB IN ADVERTISING

compared them with home-baked beans, with

:: pfxspcdhtif^ dp, top and mushy beans below. We

* told *why * beaos« when baked in home ovens,

rl^cjitQci ju^'.wcre hard to digest. And how we

baked in sealed containers, so no flavor could escape.

1 We told just the same story that any rival could

have told, but all others thought the story was

too commonplace.

Then I noticed that men at their noonday
luncheons downtown often ordered pork and beans.
These dishes were factory-baked. Apparently these
men liked factory baking better than home baking,
as did I.

So we sent out men to supply Van Gtmp*s to
resuurants and lunch counters. Soon we had thou-
sands of places serving them at noonday. We
announced the fact, told the number of places,
estimated how many men were every day going
somewhere for Van Camp's. And that set women
thinking.

Housewives were ready to quit baking beans at
home. It was a long, hard task. We went after
those housewives — the 94 per cent — and told them
how to quit easily. We told and pictured the
difference in results. Told them how many of
their men folks were buying baked beans down-
town.

There we had the arguments on our side. We
could bake better beans than any woman could
ever bake at home. But we could not bake better

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MY 8BVENTEBN TEARS Z03

beans than our rivals. So we centered our attack
on the weak spots, made Van Camp*s seem the
one way out. And we created an enormous
demand. Not only that, but the Van Gimp brand
commanded a much higher price than our rivals*.

Then Van Camp began producing evaporated
milk. First in one plant, later in seven or eight.
He wanted to advertise that, but we advised him
against it. Evaporated milk is a standard product.
It must be made to certain standards to meet
government requirements. One cannot establish
or claim an advantage on natural or standard
products. One might as well say, "buy my eggs,
because they come from Hillside Farm." Or my
butter, or my lard. Many millions of dollars have
been wasted in trying to tie people to some certain
brand of a staple; to brands of flour or oatmeal,
and to many staple products like those. About
all one can say is: "Buy my brand. Give me the
money that you give to others. Insist that I get
it." Those are not popular appeals.

I anal]^ed the situation on evaporated milk. I
found that certain brands, .regardless of advertis-
ing, dominated and controlled certain markets.
Some they had held for many years against all
efforts to displace them. The only reason seemed
to be a familiar brand. Housewives naturally
continue on the brands they know.

So I devised a plan for making Van Gunp's Milk
familiar. In a page ad. I inserted a coupon, good

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I04 MY LIFE IN ADVB&TISINO

at any store for a tcn-ccnt can. Wc paid the
grocer his retail price. For three weeks we
announced that this ad. would appear. At the
same time we told the story of Van Camp's Evapor-
ated Milk.

We sent copies of these ads. to all grocers, and
told them that every customer of theirs would
receive one of these coupons. It was evident that
they must have Van Gimp's Milk. Every coupon
meant a ten-cent sale which, if they missed it,
would go to a competitor.

The result was almost universal distribution,
and at once.

We proved out this plan in several cities of
moderate size. Then we undertook New York
City. There the market was dominated by a rival
brand. Van Camp had slight distribution. In
three weeks we secured, largely by letter, 97 per
cent distribution. Every grocer saw the necessity
of being prepared for that coupon demand.

In the meantime we announced in the newspapers
the coupon that was to appear. We told house-
wives what to expect in this milk. And we tried
to convert them from bottled milk to evaporated.

Then one Sunday in a page ad. we inserted the
coupon. This just in Greater New York. As a
result of that ad. 1,460,000 coupons were presented.
We paid $146,000 to the grocers to redeem them.
But 1,460,000 homes were trying Van Camp's Milk
after reading our story, and all in a single day.

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MY 8BVBNTBBN YEARS 105

The total cost of that enterprise, including the
advertising, was $175,000, mostly spent in redeem-
ing those coupons. In less than nine months that
cost came back with a profit. We captured the
New York market. And Van Camp has held it
ever since with enormous yearly sales.

G)mpare that method with distributing samples
from house to house. There you are offering some-
thing unasked-for and unwanted. It has no
prestige. The very giving of a sample cheapens
the product, when done in that careless way. The
stores are not stocked. Grocers are offended by
your free distribution of things they sell.

Under our plan, grocers had to stock. The
woman to get a sample had to make an effort.
She could not know of the sample without reading
the facts about this milk. If she presented the
coupon, it was because the ads. had led her to
desire this product. The grocer made his profit
on the sale, so he was happy. The woman found
Van Camp's in stock when she used that sample
can. Thus we captured market after market, and
we held them. No casual sample distributor ever
made an impression on them. Such is the difference
between making a show and really getting what
you are after.

Few makers of evaporated milk can accomplish
national distribution. They cannot produce enough
milk. So the problem there usually is to develop
local markets to take care of increased production.

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I06 MY LIFB IN ADVBHTISINO

The time came when rivals used our sample plan
and we had to invent something else. Millions
of homes had by that time been converted to
evaporated milk. The sale had reached 24,000,000
cases annually. The main question then was to
esublish a familiar brand.

Then in new cities which we tried to capture we
offered a secret gift. We offered to mail the house-
wife a present if she sent us the labels from six
Van Camp cans. Or we piled wrapped presents in
the grocers* store windows, without telling what
they were. Any woman could get one by buying
six cans of Van Gmip*s.

Curiosity is a strong factor in human nature, and
especially with women. Describe a gift, and some
will decide that they want it, more will decide
that they don't. But everybody wants a secret
gift.

There are things to consider in such an offer.
The gift must not be disappointing. It should be
somewhat better than women are led to expect.
Then the offer must be treated in a rather insiduous
way.

: The result of this offer was to induce countless
women to buy six cans of Van Gimp's Milk. They
paid regular price, but they received a gift which
made the bargain attractive. The gift cost more
than our profits on the sale. But milk is in daily
consumption. There is hardly a limit to what
one can pay to get a new user established. The

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MY 8BVENTEBN TBARS laj

six cans made Van Camp's a familiar brand. The
user had read all about Van Camp's. She was
ready to find it superior. So she asked for Van
Camp's when she needed a new supply. We
captured and held many a big market in that way.

The reader may say this is sampling, it is schem-
ing and merchandising, not dignified advertising
as we know it. I have no sympathy with dignified
and orthodox advertising. We are in business to
get results. The finest palaver in the world, if it
fails to pay, is useless. Hundreds of millions of
dollars, every year, are being wasted on it.

I want to sell what I have to sell, and sell it at
a profit. I want the figures on cost and result. We
can pose as artists and as geniuses for only a little
while. Business men find us out. Those who have
tried that plan have perished — every one I know.
But a real result-getter never loses his charm.

* We meet men sometimes whose ideas are centered
on the non-essentials. They want to boast of
their accomplishments. And they /are often big
men in some ways. One can easily please them if
he wishes to sacrifice all practical ideas, for adver-
tising to them is a maze. But do that and you are
bound to lose. The ultimate object of business is
profit. Cater to any other side, and you will
shortly find yourself discredited.

I have lost many an account because I refused to
feature an institution. Or to foster some personal
pride. But I have always found that the seekers

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X08 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TI8INO

for profit were in the vast majority. Men are
crying for new wa)rs to make money. Discover
those ways, find out how to promote them, and
you will have offered ten times the work one man
can ever do. Not literary work, not work which
leads your lady friends to say, "That's wonderful."
But practical selling. No man save a dilettante
will ever try for anything else.

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Chaffer Ten
AUTOMOBILE ADVERTISING

I WROTE my first advertisements on auto-
mobiles in 1899. They referred to a steam car
made in Milwaukee. My book on the car was
entitled The Sfart of Kings. The model I owned
was the first motor car in Racine. My first day of
ownership cost me $300, through the scaring of
hack horses and other forms of damage.

I was chauffeur and garage man. It required
thirty minutes to stan the car, which we had to
count on in catching a train. And on more than
that. Starting was a small problem when com-
pared with keeping the car going. When wc
drove ten miles without a breakdown we boasted
of the record. When we ever got through to Mil-
waukee — about twenty-five miles — ^we went directly
to the factory for repairs, and we rarely returned
that day.

Every ten miles we stopped for water. Then wc

watched the boiler gauge. As the car moved it

pumped water, but it often moved too slowly on

the roads of those days to keep the boiler supplied.

Our seat was on top of the boiler. I remember

nights on muddy roads when we watched the

water gauge go down. At a certain point we knew

the boiler would explode, but wc kept on going

S09

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no MT LIFB IN ADVERTISING

to shorten our walk back home. There are
pleasanter experiences than sitting on a boiler on
a gloomy night waiting for it to explode, and
contemplating the long muddy road ahead.

But that experience made me an automobile
enthusiast. In the time since then I have written
successful automobile ads. about some twenty cars.

In my early days with Lord & Thomas, Hugh
Chalmers bought out the Thomas-Detroit car, and
he came to consult me about it. Mr. Chalmers
was a remarkable man. He had been, it was said,
the highest-paid sales manager in the United States,
with the National Cash Register Company. I
learned much of salesmanship from him. And I
was gratified to note that in all our years together
he and I never disagreed.

The problems in automobile advertising then
were different from the problems now. For years
the situation was constantly changing, like a
kaleidoscope. One had to keep well informed to
strike the responsive chord.

I featured Howard £. Coffin, then chief engineer
for the Chalmers Company. You will note that
wherever possible I inject some personality into
an advertising campaign. This has always proved
itself an impressive idea. People like to deal with
men whose names are connected with certain
accomplishments. They would rather do that, I
have found, than deal with soulless corporations.
Naming an expert in an advertising campaign

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AUTOMOBILE ADVERTISING 1X1

indicates a man of unique ability and prominence.
He may be unknown to the public. He generally
is at the start. But when a manufacturer features
him, people accord him respect. He soon becomes
famous, then his name becomes an exclusive feature
of great value. Howard Coflin was unknown
when I first featured him. Advertising gave him
such prominence that he was made head of the
Aircraft Board in the war.

For somewhat similar reasons, an individuars
name is usually better than a coined name on a
product. And far better than a trade mark. It
locates the sponsor as a man proud of his creation.
It is far easier to make a man famous than an
institution. Consider how much names count in
theatrical productions, in the movies, or in author-
ship. They are often names created for the purpose.
It is also so in merchandising.

In those early days Cadillac and Chalmers cars
sold at about the same price — around $1,500.
Cadillac had an older reputation and it was a much
handsomer car. But the featuring of Howard E.
Coffin gave to the Chalmers a distinction which
brought it great success.

We met other conditions as they came up. We
found a growing impression that automobile profits
were excessive. We met the situation with head-
lines annovmcing, "Our Profit is 9 Per Cent."
Then we stated the actual costs on many hidden
parts. The total was over $700, and it omitted

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I IX MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

all the conspicuous parts, like the body, up-
holstery, etc.

That brings up another point in advertising —
the advantage of being specific. Platitudes and
generalities make no more impression than water
on a duck. To say, * 'Best in the world, ' ' * 'Cheapest
in the long run," **The most economical," etc.,
does not create conviction. Such claims are ex-
pected. The most carefully censored magazines
accept them as merely expressions of a salesman
trying to put his best foot forward. They are not
classed as falsehoods, but as mere exaggerations.
They probably do more harm than good, because
they indicate a looseness of expression and cause
people to discount whatever you say.

But when we make specific and definite claims,
when we state actual figures or facts, we indicate
weighed and measured expressions. We are telling
either the truth or a lie. People do not expect big
concerns to lie. They know that we cannot lie in
the best mediums. So we get full credit for those
claims. I shall have other occasions to cite the
advantages of definite, specific claims.

The Hudson Company was an offshoot of the
Chalmers Company. Mr. Chalmers was interested.
The Hudson Company was organized because the
Chalmers Company was over-manned in the selling
end. Howard E. Coffin went with the Hudson, and
I featured him there. But we went further. We
pictured and named our board of forty-eight

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AUTOMOBILE ADVBRTISINO Z13

engineers. Thus we advertised the Hudson as an
engineering accomplishment. That accorded with
the conditions of the times. Motor cars were not
then perfected. Troubles were common. The
average buyer thought more of good engineering
than of any other factor. We made the Hudson
stand for that in a very conspicuous way.

That proved itself a sound foundation. The
Hudson car has been a great success, and it remains
so still. The reason lies largely in that under-
pinning which we built in those early days. I
advertised the Hudson car for seven years, then
relinquished the advertising to a prot6g6 of mine
who continued very similar policies.

The story of the Overland reads like a romance.
Mr. John Willys ran a store in Elmira, N. Y., called
the Elmira Arms Co. He sold bicycles. Then,
when the automobile made its appearance, he
secured the agency for the Overland, then built at
Indianapolis. /

The Overland proved itself at that time one of
the few satisfactory cars. One sold another, until
the demand in the Elmira territory far exceeded
the supply. Mr. Willys took orders with deposits,
and sent the deposits down to Indianapolis. But
the cars failed to come. So he went to Indianapolis
to learn the reason, and arrived on a Sunday morn-
ing. He met the Overland owners at the hotel,
and they told him they were bankrupt. They had
failed to meet their payroll the night before. They

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114 ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ADVBETISINO

owed some $45,000 more than they could pay.
Mr. Willys could not return his deposits, so he
sought for a way to obtain the cars.

He said: **If you arc bankrupt you cannot con-
tinue the business."

"No," they replied: "we arc quitting."

*'Then suppose I can continue it," Mr. Willys
said. "WiU you turn it over to mc, debts and
all?"

They told him they would. The defaulted pay-
roll was $450. Mr. Willys set about to raise it.
He borrowed some money from the hotel clerk.
He had a little of his own. The next morning he
called the workmen together and paid them the
wages due. Then he said: "Get together a car.
Find parts enough, and quickly. We must raise
more money."

They did put together a car, and Mr. Willys
shipped it to a friend in AUentown, Pa. With it
he sent a letter somewhat as follows: "Dear Albert:
I have shipped you an Overland car, sight draft
with bill lading attached. It is necessary that you
accept it, for I have cashed the sight draft and have
used the money."

"Dear Albert" did accept it. Then they made
up other cars and shipped them in the same way.
About four in five of them stuck. The demand
came for more cars, and the problem of financing
became acute.

Mr. Willys went to the creditors with his famous

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AUTOMOBILB ADVERTISING 115

inimitable smile. He said: *'You will get nothing
if you close us up, for we have nothing there. But
give me a chance and I will try to pull through
and pay you every dollar we owe.'* The creditors
accepted that proposition, because they saw no
other way out.

Mr. Willys raised some more money — a very
little — and went on. Soon the factory capacity
was oversold. There was no time to build more
plants, so he erected tents. And in those tents
he made that season, I believe, $365,000.

I do not vouch for all the figures. I am telling
the story from memory. But the essentials are
correct and indicative.

Then Mr. Willys decided to go back to Elmira
and build a factory there. That was his home town.
While he was shaving one night to take the train,
his agent in Toledo called him up. He told of a
plant in Toledo — ^the Pope-Toledo plant — ^which
was closed and bankrupt. He said: "Come and
see it. You will find it wonderfully equipped. And
you will find steel enough and parts enough to pay
the price they ask."

As a result, Mr. Willys stopped oflF at Toledo.
He walked through the plant the next day, then
went on to New York and bought it. The next
day he sailed for Europe. When he returned he
found that his people had sold the steel alone for
far more than the cost of the plant.

As I said before, this story may not be quite

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Il6 MT LIFE IN ADVERTISING

accurate, but it illustrates the point I bring out.
The essentials are there.

The next season I took up the Overland adver-
tising — ^the first advertising they ever did. I
analysed the situation to find its most appealing
features. But nothing in all the data I gathered
appealed to me like the romance. So my first
ads. were headed "The Wonderful Overland Story."
I told how demands from users had led John E.
Willys to undertake to supply them. How that
demand had grown and grown, until it was
necessary to erect a plant of tents.

Again that limelights a principle in advertising. \
People are like sheep. They cannot judge values, 1
nor can you and I. We judge things largely by !
others' impressions, by popular favor. We go
with the crowd. So the most effective thing I
have ever found in advertising is the trend of the
crowd.

That is a factor not to be overlooked. People
follow styles and preferences. We rarely decide
for ourselves, because we don't know the facts.
But when we see the crowds taking any certain
direction, we arc much inclined to go with them.

I showed in my advertising how the crowds
were going to Overland automobiles. I told how
the demand had forced a bankrupt concern into
solvency. Then how it created a tent city. That
presentation set people thinking. And they fol-

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AUTOMOBILE ADVERTISING 117

lowed the trend. The Overland became, as it is
today, one of the largest-selling cars in the world.

The Reo at one time had a bad season. The
season's output was unsold and sales had practi-
cally ^ stopped. The next season's outlook was
dubious. I was called in to meet this emergency.
That has been my chief work in advertising —
meeting emergencies. Nobody ever called me in
when the skies were bright and the seas were
calm. Nearly every client quit me when he got
into smooth waters.

That was partly my fault, for I liked emergencies.
I would rather be a pilot than a captain. When
an advertising ship got on its clear course, I lost
much interest in it. The work became monotonous.
I was always ready to drop off and pilot another.

Then continuous advertising along one line
grows monotonous to the advertiser. He feels
that the public reads his story as often as does he.
So in the course of time he comes to desire a change.

I could never agree with this viewpoint. When
I find what seems to be the right course I always
wish to keep it. There may be another way to
success, even to greater success. But the chances
are against it. The ways to great success in any
line are not numerous. When a certain method
has proved itself profitable I hesitate to drop it,
until I have found and proved a better method by
some local tests. The best way found to sell a

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Il8 MT LIFB IN ADVERTISING

product to thousands is probably the best way to
sell other thousands.

Every ad., in my opinion, should tell a complete
story. It should include every fact and argument
found to be valuable. Most people, I figure, read
a story but once, as they do a news item. I know
of no reason why they should read it again. So I
wish them to get in that one reading every con--
vincing fact.

Any complete story told over and over is bound
to grow monotonous to the man who reads all
ads. It bores the man who writes it. Both the
writer and reader come to long for a change.

I studied the Reo situation, then went away to
consider it. The car was built by Mr. R. E. Olds,
one of the original motor-car builders. I considered
that fact, the existing misfortunes, and all com-
petition that affected the case. The difficult con-
ditions called for effective measures.

In a few days I went back and told Mr. Olds
that I would undertake the advertising on three
conditions. The first was that he name the new
model Reo the Fifth. That to give a distinctive name
and to emphasize the fact that we had a new model.

The next condition was that Mr. Olds sign the
ads. That to gain full effect from his great reputa-
tion. I told him I would write ads. he would be
proud to sign, and he agreed.

Then I stipulated that he call it **My Farewell
Car." That to signify a degree of finality and his

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▲UTOMOBILB ADVERTISING 119

satisfaction with it. **But/' he replied, **I don't
intend to retire." I said that was unnecessary.
Sarah Bernhardt made seven farewell tours. He
could have two or three. Every farewell is subject
to reconsideration.

So we came out with ads. headed **My Farewell
Car" and signed "R. E. Olds, Designer." The
ads. were written to typify the man, the man of
rugged honesty, of vast experience. The man who
knew. The man who scorned to do anything but
the best that was possible, regardless of its cost.
The man who put his reputation far ahead of profit.

The campaign from the start was a sensational
success. Reo the Fifth became at once the most
conspicuous car of the year. A new era dawned
for the Reo Company, and that era has continued
until that concern is one of the soundest and most
successful in the field.

The most successful automobile advertising I
ever did resulted in disaster, due to other causes.
That was the Mitchell advertising. I was called
there to meet an emergency. As always, I gave an
enormous amount of study to the automobile
situation, to current ideas and trends. I concluded
that the best key-note was efficiency. Efficiency
was then a popular subject with men in all lines
of business.

The Mitchell Company had an able efficiency
expert. They had a very efficient plant. So I came

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X20 MY LIFB IN ADVERTISINO

out with ads. headed, ''John W, Bate, Efficiency
Expert/* and I told of the man and his methods.

That campaign was also a sensation. I never
knew any automobile advertising to bring so many
inquiries. Sales started at an amazing rate. I had
struck the popular chord. Buyers of motor cars
wanted, above all else, economies due to efficiency.
Soon the company was on the road to great success.
It was recapitalized in a large way. But the car
was a fizzle. Its engineers had skimped in every
detail. Hundreds of cars came back, and every
car sold blighted the name Mitchell. The larger
the sales the worse became the ruin. The very
success of the advertising, with the car that was
offered, led to destruction. We played too high
a note for the product we had to sell. The bad
reputation was so widely spread that recovery
proved impossible. That formed another lesson
in advertising.

In 1514 I was called on to advertise the Stude-
baker car. For several years I had been out of the
automobile field. I had to educate myself in
existing conditions. That is always essential.
One can never strike the right chord until he
knows the trend of popular opinion.

I studied the situation for weeks. Studebaker
had been a tremendous success. The multiplying
sales, increasing assets and profits, had become a
stock-market sensation. I concluded that those
factSy always encouraging to men watching the

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AUTOMOBILB ADVBKTISINO xxz

weather, had been a major factor in Studebaker
success. So I decided to build upon them.

The result was a campaign with which all are
familiar. We cited those multiplying sales. Wc
stated the assets and the facilities they embodied.
We showed by actual figures how quantity pro-
duction reduced costs. We told the cost of certain
features compared with features used by others.
We gave actual figures, and we showed how wc
could afford those extravagances by producing
150,000 cars per year. That proved a new note,
and today an ultimate note, in automobile ad-
vertising.

The lesson in this is the lesson in all salesman-
ship. One must know what buyers are thinking
about and what they arc coming to want. One
must know the trends to be a leader in a winning
trend.

Advertising to many is mere ad.-writing.
Language and style are considered important.
They are not. If fine writing is effective in any
way it is a detriment. It suggests an effort to
sell. And every effort to sell creates corresponding
resistance.

Salesmanship-in-print is exactly the same as
salesmanship-in-person. Style is a handicap. Any-
thing that takes attention from the subject reduces
the impression. One may say: ''That is a beautiful
ad. The pictures are perfect, the presentation is
wonderful. '• But that very idea prohibits^one

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112. MT LIFE IN ADVB&TI8ING

from being influenced by the ad. It indicates lack
of sincerity. It suggests an effort to sell. And we
are all on our guard when somebody, apparently,
is trying to get our money away.

The only way to sell is in some way to seem to
offer super-service. It may be offered in a crude
way. The majority of advertising successes have
been accomplished in crude ways. They struck
a human chord in a human way. They seemed to
offer wanted service. That is why so much "fine
advertising" fails to bring results. People are
wary of it. And why so many successes are made
in ways that seem crude. They are made by super-
salesmen who forget themselves.

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Chapter Eleven
TIRE ADVERTISING

IT WAS also my lot to pioneer tire advertising.
Tires had been advertised somewhat since
biqrcle days, but with scarcely more than a name.
The Goodyear Company had for many years been
customers of our agency. I believe that their
expenditure never exceeded $40,000 per year. No-
body suspected that tires could be popularized.

One day it occurred to us that we could increase
our advertising business by increasing accounts on
our books. Thereafter that became our dominant
principle. Along those lines we grew to be one of
the largest agencies in the world.

Commissions to advertising agents are paid by
the publishers. Not for changing accounts from
one agency to another, but for increasing the
volume of advertising. We should earn our pay.
One way is by seeking and developing new adver-
tising opportunities. Another is by making it
possible for existing advertisers to multiply ex-
penditures, r <i

I have rarely taken an account from another
advertising agent. I have never tried to do so,
save where a big opportxmity was being spoiled
by wrong methods. Nearly all my large accounts
have been of my own creation. I have started

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X14 ^^ ^I'B ^^ ADVB&TI8INO

with small sums sometimes, and made the adver«
tising grow out of earnings. Such developments
form the real satisfactions of advertising.

The Goodyear people, after much persuasion,
were induced to enlarge their eacpenditure. For
the first season they gave us $2xx),ooo. It seemed
to them a reckless amount.

They were then pioneering what they called the
straight-side tire. I had heard about it, but did
not know what it was. Ads. about it had fre-
quently come to my desk. I was interested both
in tires and in advertising, but was never enough
impressed to learn what straight-side meant.

I asked them about it and they showed me the
difference between straight-side and clincher tires.
I asked the reason for that difference. They told
me the straight-side would not rim-cut. And
that type of construction had, size for size, lo per
cent greater air capacity.

•'Then why,** I asked, **don"t you emphasize
those results? Results are what men are after.
They care not how you get them."

That was a new idea to them. They were manu-
facturers, interested mainly in a type of construc-
tion. Being interested in manufacturing details,
they naturally talked them to the public.

There lies the chief reason why no manufacturer
should ever conduct his own advertising. Few
attempt it now. The advertiser is too close to his
factory. His own interests tend to blind him to

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TIRB ADVERTISING 2x5

the interests of his customers. He fails to appreciate
the consumer's side.

He tells of the things he takes pride in — ^his
methods and processes, the si^e of his plant, the
age of his business, etc. The advertising man must
study the consumer and tell what he wants to
know.

I coined the name **No-Rim-Cut Tires.*' Across
every ad. we ran the heading, **No-Rim-Cut
Tires, 10% Oversize." The results were immediate
and enormous. Sales grew by leaps and bounds.
Goodyear tires soon occupied the leading place
in tiredom.

Another result was to force all rivals to this
type of tire. In two or three years the time came
when Goodyear, on that point, could not claim
advantage. So we gradually reduced the name
No-Rim-Cut and featured the name Goodyear.

By that time, however, we had another talking
point even more impressive. That was the sensa*
tional growth in demand. We featured it in
pictures and in type, until it seemed that the whole
motor world was turning to Goodyear tires. }

That is in most lines a great selling argument.
People follow the crowds. It is hard for them in
most things to analyze reasons and worth, so they
accept the verdict of the majority.

We did another thing there through a name.
We called the anti-skid-tread All-Weather. We
figured out what claim could count most and made

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Il6 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TI8INO

the name imply it. So the name told our main
story. It formed an ad. in itself. Our main purpose
then was to induce motorists to use this type of
tire on all wheels in all weathers. That has since
become the custom, largely through that influence.

There is a great advantage in a name that tells
a story. The name is usually displayed. Thus the
right name may form a reasonably complete ad.
which all who run may read. Coining the right
name is often the major step in good advertising.
No doubt such names often double the results of
expenditures. Consider the value of such names
as May-Breath, Dyanshine, 3-in-Qne Oil, Palm-
olive Soap, etc.

Another problem we had to solve was to get
dealers to carry tire stocks. Few of them did so in
those days. They bought from the Goodyear
branches as they sold. We prepared a large news-
paper campaign and offered to name in each ad.
all the dealers who stocked. The minimum
requirement was a $150 stock. In a few months
we induced some 30,000 dealers to stock Goodyear
tires on that basis. And that campaign did much
to change the whole complexion of the tire
business.

This naming of dealers in local advertising is an
almost irresistible inducement to stock. Few
plans are more effective. No dealer likes to see his
rivals named in a big campaign and his own name
omitted. The more who join in the plan the

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TIRE ADVERTISING 117

easier it is to get others. I have often secured on
new products almost universal distribution in this
way.

The Goodyear campaign was one of my greatest
successes. It placed Goodyear tires in the lead.
Never have I met changing situations in more
effective ways. The advertising grew from $40,000
to nearly $1,000,000 per year.

Still I lost it. There developed a desire for
institutional advertising which I never could
approve. It is natural. Great success brings to
most men a desire to boast a little. But boasting
is the last thing people want to hear. Men like
to pictiu-e their plants, to tell how they grew, and
to preach a little on methods and policies. That
may be satisfying, but it isn't salesmanship. No
man in advertising, or in anything else, can afford
to offend his own principles. The moment he
compromises for money's sake he is lost. Not as
a success, perhaps, but as an artist. As a man who
contributes to his profession or calling and brings
it to higher levels.

There lies the cause of most conflicts in adver-
tising. The layman pays the bills. He naturally
assumes the right to dictate. He is not apt to
exercise that right in the early stages. The scheme
is too new to him. But there comes a time when
he feels that he is also an advertising expert. It is
curious how we all desire to excel in something
outside of our province.

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XX8 MT LIFB IN ADVB&TISINO

That leads many men astray. Men make money
in one business and lose it in many others. They
seem to feel that one success makes them super*-
business men.

These men would not venture to dictate to a
surgeon. Or tell a lawyer how to win a certain
case. Or an artist how to paint a picture. They
recognize technical knowledge in vocations like
those. But not in advertising, which seems so
simple to them, because it aims at simple people.
They do not realize that no lifetime is long enough
to learn much more than the rudiments.

Later I advertised Miller tires. The situation
had changed entirely. Buyers in general had come
to regard good tires as about alike. It was
necessary to upset that impression and to secure
a preference in some way.

Miller tires were largely used on bus lines on
the Pacific coast. I secured the data and the records.
The figures on buses using Miller tires were im-
pressive. The mileage records were surprising.
The trend toward Millers in commercial uses was
significant.

I made those facts the key-note of my campaign.
The ordinary tire buyer makes no comparisons.
He rarely keeps track of tire mileage. When he
does so, it is not done in a scientific way. But he
knows that large tire users do not adopt a certain
make on guess. I played on that knowledge. I
stated in exact figures the results of comparisons.

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TIRB ADVBRTISINO 2x9

I pictured the trend toward Millers in commercial
uses where men knew to exactness what they were
doing.

I told of the tests made in the Miller factory,
where great machines wore out all sorts of tires
under actual road conditions. How tires were
studied which showed the least advantage over
Millers, I created the impression — and a right
impression — that the Miller people were doing
their utmost to secure the maximum tire mileage.
That was a short but successful campaign.

Our difference there, as in many lines, lay
between dealers and consumers. My idea is that
we cannot afford to sell anything twice. We
cannot spend large sums in expense and concessions
in selling our goods to dealers. Then spend other
large sums in selling for the dealer. The tax is
too great on the consumer. We must choose.

If a line can be sold by interesting dealers, let
the dealer sell. But if we are going to sell our
goods for him, we cannot pay him more than the
profit of a mere distributor.

The greatest calamities in advertising come
through doubling the selling expense. The ad-
vertiser wins the consumer, and that is expense
enough. Then he gives his profits to jobbers and
dealers in an effort to interest them. He gives
free goods and other costly inducements, and gets
nothing at all. The dealers and jobbers supply
the demand. They become mere order-takers.

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There is one of the greatest questions in merchan-
dising. An unadvertised line without consumer
demand must depend on distributors. And they
demand a big toll. But however large you make
it, somebody else will bid higher. The margin
soon diminishes to insignificance.

If you are an advertiser, creating consumer
demand, you must ignore to some extent these
intermediary factors. Treat them fairly, but do
not pay them for what they cannot do. The jobber
will charge you, if you let him, his expense of
competition. The dealer will compare your
allotted profits with profits on lines he owns.
They do not figure that in one case you do the
selling; in the other they do it all.

Most lines which I have advertised have never
employed a salesman. The whole idea has been
to win consumers and let them sell to dealers and
to jobbers. Those who have tried to sell to con-
sumers, then to dealers and jobbers, have attained
prohibitive expense. One must choose. Margins
in selling are not sufficient to accommodate both
£sictors.

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Chapter Twelve
EARLY HISTORY OF PALMOLIVE

WE ORGANIZED in our agency an "ad-
visory board" over which I presided. We
announced that anyone could bring there adver-
tising problems, in person or by letter, and receive
without obligation the advice of the best men in
our agency. Some sixteen able advertising men
sat around the table. They offered an inviting
opportunity to advertisers, existing or prospective.
Some hundreds of men with dubious prospects
came there and we advised nineteen in twenty of
them not to proceed. The men who hesiuted
were large advertisers who had most at stake.
That is generally so in this line.

Our object in these meetings was to foster good
advertising, to warn men against mistakes, and to
try to discover in the mass of suggestions some
jewels of advertising opportunities. Under the
same policy we published numerous books offering
advice based on our many experiences. We felt
that our own interests depended on the prosperity
of advertising as a whole. Mistakes and disasters
hurt advertising. One conspicuous success may
encourage many ventures. No doubt our helpfiil
and unselfish policy was a large factor in the

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I3X MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

growth of advertising during the past twenty
years.

One morning there appeared at our meeting
Mr. B. J. Johnson of the B. J. Johnson Soap Co. of
Milwaukee. With him came Mr. Charles Pearce,
a newly-appointed sales manager who was seeking
a way to make good. They came to discuss
Galvanic Soap — a laundry soap. After due con-
sideration we advised them against entering that
advertising field. It is too difficult, too hard
fought to offer encouragement to a new advertiser.
On the facts we cited the owners soon came to
agree with us.

Then we asked if they had anything else. They
said that they had a toilet soap called Palmolive,
made with palm and olive oils. It had slight
distribution; they had not considered it as an
advertising possibility.

: At that time the men around the table only
dimly recognized the strength of the beauty appeal.
We were destined to later develop on that line
some of the greatest advertising successes. There
is no stronger appeal to women. One man sug«
gested that Cleopatra used palm and olive oils.
Another reminded us that Roman beauties did
likewise. Gradually we came to recognize the
germ of an advertising opportunity, and we asked
the soap-makers to let us make an experiment.
We suggested a trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
and wc estimated that it could be made for about

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BARLY HISTORY OF PALMOLIVE 133

$i,ooo. But that was too much^moncy to stake
on so uncertain a venture, so we were forced to
compromise on Benton Harbor, Michigan, where
the cost was $700. In that little city appeared the
first ads. on Palmolive Soap.

We evolved a plan of introduction which I have
used in many of my best campaigns. I originated
that plan, so far as I know, and it has been one of
the chief factors in my success. We ran two or
three ads. telling the story of Palmolive Soap,
bringing out the beauty appeal. Above the ads.
in a box we announced that in a few days we
would buy a cake of Palmolive for every woman
who applied. That oflfer multiplied the readers of
our ads. When you offer to buy something for a
woman, she wants to learn about it. Thus we
interested most women readers in oiu* complexion
soap. When we felt that we had created a sufficient
desire for it we came out with a page ad. with a
coupon good at any store for a ten-cent cake. The
coupon authorized the dealer to deliver one cake
to the bearer and charge us ten cents for it.

This plan has many advantages over a *'free*'
offer. It is much more impressive, for one thing.
There is considerable difference in the psychological
effect when you offer to buy an article for a woman
to try, and pay the dealer his price for it, as com-
pared with offering that article free to all. The
"free" offer cheapens a product. There is a certain
resistance when we ask people to afterward pay

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134 ^7 UFB IN ADVERTISING

for a product which came to them first as a gift.
But when we ourselves buy the article, just as the
consumer does, we show supreme confidence in
the belief that the article will please. "We Will
Buy'* is a much better headline than '*io-Cent
Cake Free.-

Then the buying method forces dealers to stock
the product you offer. No salesmen are needed.
Simply mail a proof of the coupon ad. to dealers.
Point out the fact that practically every home will
receive it. Also that the coupon is as good as a
dime. Women will not throw it away. If one
dealer fails to redeem it another dealer will. We
gain by this plan universal distribution immedi-
ately at moderate cost. That is, of coiu-se. the
first essential in advertising.

Run in any community a few ads. announcing
a buying offer and you are siu-e of a pretty general
reading of your proposition. Then when the page
ad. appears with the coupon, all who are inter-
ested in your product will present it. Thus we
gain in two weeks a general understanding of our
product and users by the thousands.

I have never found that it paid to give either a
sample or a full-size package to people who do not
request it. We must arouse interest in our product
before it has value to anybody. I consider pro-
miscuous sampling a very bad plan indeed. Prod-
ucts handed out without asking or thrown on the
doorstep lose respect. It is different when you

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BAELT HISTORY OF PALMOLIVE 135

force people to make an effort or when you buy
the product at retail price on request.

Such was the plan we used in Benton Harbor on
the initial Palmolive ads. The cost, including
the redemption of coupons, was $700, I believe.
As a result several thousand women were started
on this soap with full knowledge of its qualities
and purpose. Then we waited to see the effect.
What would users do when they tried the soap?
The answer to that question is the most vital
factor in advertising.

Now I come to some figures which may not be
exact. This campaign was started in 19x1. My
memory may be somewhat, but not seriously, at
fault. The repeat sales in Benton Harbor paid for
the advertising before the bills were due. We
knew then we had struck a responsive chord. We
knew we had a winner.

We tried the same test ads. in numerous other
cities, always with like results. I believe that
they spent about $50,000 in local advertising to
prove that our appeal was effective. Always the
advertising paid for itself as we went along. Then
we went into magazines and gained national dis-
tribution and sale in ways I shall describe.

Let me pause for a few remarks. In the tales I
recite in this history there is no desire to over-
emphasize any parts I played. Our agency was an
organization of experienced men who worked
together. The head of the agency often said that

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136 MY UFB IN AOVE&TI8IKO

we never succeeded for any body who could not
have succeeded without us. I do not agree with
him. On most of our successes we were the ones
to discover and develop the advertising oppor-
tunities. That was naturally so because that was
our business. The plan, the theory, and the
strategy of the advertising all were our creations.
But one necessity was an acceptable product.
That depended on the makers. Another necessity
was good business management. I consider the
Palmolive success as particularly due to that after
the route was discovered. The leading factor was
the Charles Pearce who came to us that fateful
morning in 191 1.

The purpose of this business biography is not
to claim personal credit. It is to point out to
those who follow me certain principles which I
discovered by hard work. I have no wish to
minimi2e any other person's part or hurt anybody's
pride. No business is created by one man.

After those local newspaper tests on Palmolive
it was decided to attain national distribution
quickly. There we followed the same lines as in
our local e£forts. We contracted for a page in the
Saturday Evming FoS and Ladies* Home Journal.
There we inserted a coupon good at any drug
store in the country for a ten-cent cake of Palm-
olive. We sent advance proofs of that page to
druggists everywhere, giving figures on the circula-
tion by localities, and pointing out that the coupon

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EA&LT HISTORY OP PALMOLIVB 137

was M good as a dime to the woman aad the
druggist. As a result we received orders from
everywhere for a soap which the dealers had never
seen. As I remember, those advance orders ex-
ceeded $zoo,ooo.

Jobbers were well stocked — on consignment, I
think — so that dealers could quickly get new
supplies. When the ads came out the coupon
demand was tremendous. After a few days tens
of thousands of women were using Palmolive
Soap, seeking the virtues described in our adver-
tising. And the drug stores of the country, almost
to a store, were supplying it. The results in repeat
sales were even better than in our local appeals.

Such were the ways in which Palmolive Soap
was established, so far as advertising was con-
cerned. Now the sales run to many millions
yearly. Palmolive is the leading toilet soap of the
world. The annual advertising expenditure runs
into enormous figures. Makers, advertising agents,
and publishers have gained fortunes in the evolu-
tion of this $700 test.

Some lessons I would like to draw are these:
Human nature our country over is about alike.
The appeal which won in Benton Harbor won
from coast to coast.

One does not need to sell a product twice. One
can rarely afford to sell to both dealers and con-
sumers. If you sell the consumer the dealer will
supply the demand. That is more important today

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138 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTISINO

than in old days. Both personal salesmanship
and advertising are more costly than they were.

Quick volume is more profitable than slowly-
developed volume. When one proves that a plan
is right and safe the great object is quick develop-
ment. Attain the maximum as soon as you can.

The simple things, easily understood, striking
a popular chord, are the appeals which succeed
with the masses. They often sound to the intel-
lectual like excerpts from Mother Goose. Dutch
Cleanser chases dirt, Ivory Soap floats. Gold Dust
Twins do your work. Children Cry for Castoria,
Keep Your Schoolgirl Complexion — such things
win the nine-tenths.

I once knew a man who was advertising business
books. They were instructive, based on excep-
tional experience, books that any business man
should read. But the publisher could not sell
them at a profit. He consulted an advertising
expert in our office. About all the expert did was
to suggest the announcement, *Tour name will
be printed in gilt on each book." We might
naturally say that such an announcement to a
business man would not prove important. But it
made that set of books a success. It gave the
books some distinction, some personality that
won, beyond all the logical arguments.

A life insurance company solicits business by
mail from men considered wise. The usual argu-
ments would stir few men to action. But this

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BAKLY HISTORY OF PALMOLIVB 239

company states that a leather<overed memo-
randum book with his name in gilt is waiting for
his acceptance. Simply tell them where to send
it. At the same time tell them the date of your
birth, etc. — facts on which to present an insurance
proposition.

Tliis oflFer, I believe, goes only to men of aflFairs.
Men who are supposed to be absorbed in large busi-
ness problems. But it gains a reply from a very
large percentage. Those men of affairs dislike to
think that some little book which belongs to
them — ^perhaps a ten-cent book — ^is being over-
looked. Such is human nature.

Now back to the Palmolive Company. The suc-
cess of Palmolive Soap led these good people into
many advertising adventures. Most of them were
fizzles, as with the majority of such undertakings.
Neither they nor we had the magic to do the im-
possible things.

One was Palmolive Shampoo. They had on that
no unique claims. It was simply a good shampoo.
The appeal presented was, "Buy my brand instead
of the other fellow's," and such appeals never go
far.

In an island near Japan there grows an oil famous
for growing hair. I have before me photographs of
Japanese women standing on chairs with their hair
floating on the floor. The whole supply of the oil
had been contracted for years by French hair-tonic
makers. The contracts had expired. I urged the

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140 MT LIFB IN AOVBRTI8INO

Palfflolive people to secure that oil and argument,
but the cost was high.

I do not know what has been done on Palmolive
Shampoo by merchandising methods. But I have
had much experience with other shampoos. And I
know that nobody] in a hard-fought field has ever
succeeded without some exceptional claims.

On the other side let me recite the experience with
Palmolive Shaving Cream. That was a logical
adaptation of the fame of Palmolive Soap. But
certain facts had to be considered. Practically all
the users of shaving cream were wedded to certain
brands. Perhaps most of them had used those
brands for years, and they liked them. Our prob*
lem was to win users from one brand to another.

One can hardly claim in a shaving soap excep-
tional efifects. That is not logical. Some of the
greatest soap-makers in the country have studied
shaving soaps for years. But they have never suted
in exact terms their accomplishments.

I sent out some research men to interview men by
the hundreds. I asked them what they most desired
in a shaving cream. Then I took those answers to
Milwaukee, then the home of Palmolive, and sub*
mitted them to V. C. Gtssidy, chief chemist. I said :
**These are the factors men want. They may get
them in other shaving creams, but nobody yet has
told them. Give me actual data on these results as
applied to Palmolive Shaving Cream.*'
1^ Men wanted abundant lather. Cassidy proved

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BA&LY HISTORY OF PALMOLIVB 14Z

that Palfflolivc Shaving Cream multiplied itself in
lather 150 times. Men wanted quick action. The
Palmolive chemists proved by tests that within one
minute the beard absorbed 15 per cent of water, and
that made the hairs wax-like for cutting.

Men wanted enduring lather. Chemists proved
that Palmolive Shaving Cream maintained its creamy
fulness for ten minutes on the face.

Palm and olive oils were accepted as a lotion.
But I asked Mr. Cassidy if there was anything else
which the ordinary man did not realize on shaving
cream. He said that the greatest factor was un*
recognized. The reason why men could not use in
shaving an ordinary toilet soap. That is the fact
that the bubbles are not strong and enduring. They
must wedge in between the hairs and hold them
erect, like wheat prepared for mowing. So we
claimed for Palmolive Shaving Cream, and rightly,
bubbles that meet the requirements.

Probably other shaving creams could meet the
same specifications. I have no idea that one man
far excels some others in this line. But we were the
first to give figures on results. And one actual figure
counts for more than countless platitudes.

I am told that in eighteen months Palmolive
Shaving Cream dominated the field it entered. If
so, it was because we substituted actual figures for
atmospheric claims.

Anybody who reads this, interested in real ad*
vertising, should get the points I introduce. You

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141 MY LIFB IN ADVB&TISINO

otnnot go into a well-occapicd field on the simple
appeal, "buy my brand." That is a selfish appeal,
repugnant to all. One must offer exceptional service
to induce people to change from favorite brands to
yours. The usual advertiser does not offer that ex-
ceptional service. It cannot be expected. But giving
exact figures on that service which others fail to
supply may esublish great advantage.

Take the example of Mazda lamps, or tungsten
lamps in general. The claim that they give more
light than carbon lamps makes slight impression.
Everybody expects one seller to claim advantage
over others. But when you state that tungsten
lamps multiply efficiency three times over, that is
something for all to consider.

Back of all of which lies the principle of personal
salesmanship. All advertising should be based on
that. Meeting a woman at her door is much like
meeting her around her evening lamp. The same
principles of salesmanship apply. And advertising
is salesmanship-in-print.

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Chapter Thirteen
PUFFED GRAINS AND QUAKER OATS

ONE of my greatest successes came about
through advertising Puffed Wheat and Puffed
Rice. And it came about in this way.

Mr. H. P. Crowell, the president of The Quaker
Oats Company, was a friend of an old associate of
mine. That associate urged Mr. Crowell to learn
what I could do to help him. So one day Mr.
Crowell called me to his office and said something
like this: "We have our long-esublished advertis*
ing connections, and they are satisfactory. But we
have many lines not advertised. If you can find one
which offers opportunity, we will experiment with
you. We will spend $50,000 or over to prove out
your ideas."

I looked over the line, and I found two appealing
products. One was called Puffed Rice; the other
was called Wheat Berries. The Rice was selling at
zo cents then, and the Wheat was advertised at 7
cents. The sales had been declining. The makers
were convinced that the products could not succeed.

I selected those products because of their unique
appeals. I urged them to change the name of Wheat
B(^ies to Puffed Wheat, so we could advertise the
two puffed grains together. I asked them to change
prices, so that Puffed Rice sold at 13 cents and

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144 ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ADVB&TISINO

Puffed Wheat at lo cents. This added an average
of $i.x5 per case to their billing price. That extra
gave us an advertising appropriation. I was sure
that extra price would not reduce the sale, in view
of our advertising efforts. And it gave us a fund to
develop new users.

I went to the plants where these puffed grains
were made. Professor A. P. Anderson, the inventor
of puffed grains, accompanied me. During nights
on the train and days in the factories we studied the
possibilities.

I learned the reason for puffing. It exploded every
food cell. I proved that it multiplied the grains to
eight times normal size. It made every atom avail*
able as food.

I watched the process, where the grains were shot
from gims. And I coined the phrase, 'Toods shot
from guns."

That idea aroused ridicule. One of the greatest
food advertisers in the country wrote an article
about it. He said that of all the follies evolved in
food advertising this certainly was the worst. The
idea of appealing to women on a *Tood shot from
gtms" was the theory of an imbecile.

But that theory proved attractive. It aroused
curiosity. And that is one of the greatest incentives
we know in dealing with human nature.

The theories behind this puffed-grain campaign
are worthy of deep consideration. It proved itself
the most successful campaign ever conducted on

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PUFFBD GRAINS AND QUAKER OATS 145

cereals. They made PuflFed Wheat and Puffed Rice
the largest money-earners in the field of breakfast
foods.

First, I established a personality — Professor A. P.
Anderson. I have always done that wherever pos-
sible. Personalities appeal, while soulless corpor-
ations do not. Make a man famous and you make
his creation famous. All of us love to study men
and their accomplishments.

Then in every ad. I pictured these grains eight
times normal size. I made people want to see them.

I told the reason for the puffing. In every grain
we created 115,000,000 steam explosions — one for
every food cell. Thus all the elements were fitted
to digest. I combined every inducement, every ap-
peal which these food products offered.

Puffed grains had been advertised for years^ and
with increasing disappointment. Advertised as one
of countless cereal foods. Nothing was cited to
give them particular interest or distinction. The
new methods made them unique. They aroused
curiosity. No one could read a puffed grain ad.
without wishing to see those grains. And the test
won constant users.

But we made and corrected numerous mistakes.
We spent large sums in newspaper advertising,
which on that line could not pay. Newspapers
reach all the people. This expensive food line ap-
pealed only to the classes. Nine in ten whom we
reached by newspapers could not afford puffed

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grains. So we finally proved that magazine ad-
vertising was our only possibility.

Then we distributed millions of samples promis-
cuously. The samples themselves did not win many
users. We had to first establish an interest, a re-
spect.

So we stopped giving samples to uninterested
people. Then we published ads. in tens of millions
of magazines, each with a coupon good at any
grocery store for a package of Puffed Wheat or
Puffed Rice. The people first read our story. If
they cut out the coupon, it was because our story
had interested. Those people welcomed the pack-
age, and they found what they looked for in it.

That is so in all sampling. It never pays to cast
samples on the doorstep. They are like waifs. Give
samples only to people who take some action to
acquire them because of an interest created. Give
the product an atmosphere. Otherwise it will
never make a lasting impression.

Another thing we learned was this : We published
tens of millions of ads. which offered Puffed Wheat
free to anyone who bought Puffed Rice. The offer
was ineffective, as all such offers are. It meant
simply a price reduction. It is just as hard to sell
at a half price as at a full price to people not con-
verted. All our millions of ads. on those lines
brought lis few new users.

So advertisers always find it. A coupon good for
half the price is small inducement. A coupon which

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PUFFBD OKAIN8 AND QUAKBR OATS 147

requires ten cents for a sample appeals to a small
percentage. Remember that you are the seller.
You are trying to win customers. Then make a
trial easy to the people whom you interest. Don't
ask them to pay for your efforts to sell them.

Economy on this point multiplies the cost of sell-
ing. Inquiries for free samples may cost 15 cents
each. Ask 10 cents for the sample, and the inquiries
may cost you $1.2.$ or more. To gain that 10 cents
you may be losing one dollar. And you may start
only one-fifth as many users for the money that you
spend. That is one of the greatest follies in adver-
tising.

My success on puffed grains led the Quaker Oats
Company to ask me to study their other proposi-
tions. ^The main one was Quaker Oats. There I
made one of the greatest mistakes of my life

I figured that The Quaker Oats Qjmpany con-
trolled a large percentage of the oatmeal business.
If we could increase the consumption of oatmeal,
we would reap most of the benefits. So I planned
my first campaign on those lines.

I shall not describe the methods. They were far-
reaching and effective, so far as they could go. I
employed hundreds of men to gather data for me,
but I was wrong. The easing of oatmeal has for
centuries been regarded as important. Everybody
knows the value of oatmeal. Those who do not
employ it have a reason hard to overcome.
, I ran an educational campaign on a new and ap-

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pealing line. But it did not paf. We found that
converting new users was a very expensive proposal.
No new user would pay us in his lifetime the cost
of his conversion.

That is so in many lines. For instance, convert-
ing people to the tooth brush to secure new tooth
paste users. New converts, I figure, cost at least
$15. No tooth-paste maker could get that cost
back in decades.

New habits are created by general education.
They are created largely by writers who occupy free
space. I have never known of a line where indi-
vidual advertisers could profitably change habits.

If that cannot be done on a big scale, it certainly
cannot be done on a small scale. Every line, every
word, directed to that end is a waste. No one can
profiubly change habits in paid print. The ad-
vertiser comes in when those habits are changed.
He says; "Here is the right method.**

Many millions of dollars have been wasted by
advertisers who do not recognize that fact. They
aim at people not yet schooled to use the products
which they offer. The idea is fine and altruistic,
but it never can be made to pay.

All my later advertising on Quaker Oats was
aimed at oatmeal users. I never tried to win new
users. I simply told existing users the advantages
we offered. And we gained large results on those
lines.

Our greatest results came during the war, when

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PUFFED GRAINS AND QUAKBR OATS 149

ill of US were urged to meat substitutes, when the
study of calories became a fad. The calories in
Quaker Oats showed conspicuously. The cost per
1,000 calories was about one-tenth the cost of meat.
We doubled the Quaker Oats sales on that calorie
presentation.

But we always had in mind that the use of oat-
meal was retarded by long cooking. A competitor
came out with oats which cooked quickly, and he
made vast inroads on our sales. Just then an in-
ventor came to us with the idea of ready-<:ooked
oats. We called them Two-minute Oats. All they
required was the heating.

We considered this a great solution of the oatmeal
problem. Most of us wanted to adopt it without
tests. But I urged experiments.

So we tried Two-minute Oats in a few towns. We
offered a package free. Then we wrote to the users
and asked their opinion. The verdict was against
us. The flavor was different from oatmeal as they
knew it. New users might consider it a better
flavor. They probably would. But the regular
users of oatmeal rebelled at the change, and new
users were too few to consider

So Two-minute Oats proved a failure.

Later came the idea of oats that cooked in from
three to five minutes. The flavor was not unique.
Most of the directors voted against it because Two-
minute Oats had failed. But I urged them to make

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a test. Leara what the housewives said. We named
it Quick Quaker Oats.

So we made a test in a few towns. We offered to
buy the first package to try. We told every user we
did not care whether they preferred Quaker Oats or
Quick Quaker. All we wanted to know was their
preference. Some 90 per cent of those users voted
for Quick Quaker. And now Quick Quaker gives
to Quaker Oats a decided advantage.

All of which teaches us lessons of vast impor-
tance. Our success depends on pleasing people. By
an inexpensive test we can learn if we please them
or not. We can guide our endeavors accordingly.

Two-minute Oats failed because the unique flavor
did not appeal to most people. But Quick Quaker
gave to the Quaker Oats Company a new hold on
the oatmeal business. The difference was decided
by submitting the question to a few thousand house-
wives at small expense. That can always be done.
One can always learn what is wanted and what is
not wanted, without any considerable risk.

That is about the only way to advertising suc-
cess. Perhaps one time in fifty a guess may be
right. But fifty times in fifty an actual test tells
you what to do and avoid.

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Chapter Fourteen
PEPSODENT

THE greatest success of my career so far has
been made on Pepsodent Tooth Paste. Its pro-
moter has been associated with me for twenty-two
years. We have made millions together in adver-
tising enterprises. When I went with Lord &
Thomas he was quite despondent. He offered me a
large salary to idle and wait for him to find some
mutual opportunity. f

He became involved in irrigation projects in
Tucson, Arizona. There the nights are long and
lonesomeness omnipotent. So he courted the ac-
quaintance of the health-seekers there, and one of
them had evolved this tooth paste.

When he brought it to me I tried to discourage
him. It was a technical proposition. I did not see
a way to educate the laity in technical tooth-paste
theories. He insisted on a fifty-cent price, when
twenty-five cents had been the usual price for a
tooth paste.

But he was persistent. So I finally agreed to
undertake the campaign if he gave me a six months'
option on a block of stock, which he did.

I read book after book by dental authorities on
the theory on which Pepsodent was based. It was
dry reading. But in the middle of one book I found

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151 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

a reference to the mucio plaques on teeth, which I
afterward called the film. That gave me an appeal-
ing idea.

I resolved to advertise this tooth paste as a creator
of beauty. To deal with that cloudy film.

The natural idea in respect to a tooth paste is to
make it a preventive. But my long experience had
taught me that preventive measures were not popu-
lar. People will do anything to cure a trouble, but
little to prevent it. G>untless advertising ideas
have been wrecked by not understanding that phase
of human nature. Prevention offers slight appeal
to humanity in general.

Then I was urged to present the results of neglect,
the negative side of the subject. But I had learned
that repulsive ideas seldom won readers or converts.
People do not want to read of the penalties. They
want to be told of rewards. * 'Laugh and the world
laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.'*
People want to be told the ways to happiness and
cheer.

This point is important. Every advertising cam-
paign depends on its psychology. Success or failure
is determined by the right or wrong appeal. Scores
have tried to scare people into using a certain tooth
paste. Not one has succeeded, so far as I know,
save where they appealed to troubles already
created. Folks give little thought to warding off
disasters. Their main ambition is to attain more
success, more happiness, more beauty, more cheer.

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I recognized that fundamental. I never referred
to disasters. I never pictured the afflicted. Every
illustration I ever used showed attractive people and
beautiful teeth. 1

But there were many more things to consider.
Some I had learned by previous experience, some I
had to learn in this line. We keyed every ad. by the
coupon. We tried out hundreds of ads. Week by
week the results were reported to me, and with
each report came the headline we employed. Thus
I gradually learned the headlines that appealed and
the headlines which fell flat.

I learned that beauty was the chief appeal. Most
men and women desired to be attractive. When I
could oflFer a convincing way they listened to my
arguments. So I came to feature beauty.

But I learned something else. The man who
argues for his own advantage is usually disregarded,
often scorned. This is particularly true on any
subject pertaining to hygiene.

When I urged any person to buy Pepsodent, I was
met with apathy. When I asked them to send ten
cents for a sample, they almost ignored me. So I
was forced to altruistic advertising. The sample
was free. The whole object of the ad. was to induce
a test for the good of the parties concerned. I
never even mentioned that Pepsodent was for sale.
I never quoted its price. My whole apparent objea
was to prove at our cost what Pepsodent could do.

This line brought another revelation. In most

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lines, like food products, the word "free" was a|>-
pealing. It multiplied the readers of our ads. The
offer of a sample seemed a natural way to sell.

But when we came to something pertaining to
hygiene the psychology was different. We were
professing to offer people benefits of vast impor-
tance. When we featured a gift, like a breakfast
food, it minimized our importance. It made us
traders, simply seeking to sell, not scientists seeking
to benefit. When we featured a free offer at the top
of our ads. we divided our results by four.

Such things are not easy to discover. When we
advertise a dessert and feature a free package, it
harmonizes with human nature. When we offer a
hygienic help and make the word "free" a chief
appeal, we discredit all the factors which can bring
us converts.

I spent much time to learn this. I wasted some
money. But I always knew immediately, by my
keyed coupons, the effects of my every appeal. [I
learned my mistakes in a week. I never spent much
money on any wrong theory. I discovered quickly
the right and the wrong.

Here we are dealing with one of the greatest sue*
cesses in advertising. A tooth paste which, despite
all opposition, came to rule the world. Today it is
sold in 5X countries. It is advertised in 17 lan-
guages, including the Chinese, and in each our ap-
peal has proved equally effective.

We came into a field well occupied. During all

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PBP80DBNT 155

of our advancement we had countless competitors.
We won over them all and made Pepsodent, in a few
short years, the star dentifrice success. This was
no accident.

The Pepsodent G)mpan7 was organized on a
small capital. Most of the investment went into
o£Eice fixtures and machinery. All men connected
were old advertisers. They would never have in-
vested much in trade creating without assurance of
quick return.

We secured that quick return. In our first test
city we spent $i,ooo, which came back with a profit
before the advertising bills were due. We tried
other cities, and they panned out in like way. Then
our backers advanced large sums of money on a plan
that had proved a certainty. Thus we established
in one year a nation-wide demand, and a world-
wide demand in four years.

G)nsider this undertaking. I know of nothing in
all advertising so successful in a big, quick way.
One series of ads. which I prepared would have
wrecked it in three months. Yet I had at that time
spent nearly thirty years in advertising. I had
learned from hundreds of campaigns.

I caught my mistakes by the coupon — caught
them quickly. I reversed my strategy at once. Be-
fore we went very far, I had found the way to quick
and sure success, simply by watching returns.

A hundred tooth-paste makers might start out,
as a hundred have, and fall down. Simply because

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they were wedded to some theory which humaa
nature failed to approve. They did not learn their
mistake, because they did not quickly check results.
So they wrecked themselves on rocks which could
have been avoided.

I made for myself a million dollars on Pepsodent*
— on a proposition which at first I refused to under-
take. Just because by countless tests I learned the
right human psychology.

What is the lesson? It is that none of us can af*
ford to rely on judgment or experience. We must
feel our way. New problems require new experi-
ence. We must test our undertakings in the most
exact way possible. Learn our mistakes and cor-
rect them. Watch every appealing lead.

After this experience, I can cite a hundred ways
to advertise a tooth paste wrongly. And I can
prove the mistakes. But a hundred men might
follow each to the rocks if they had no gauge on
results. A hundred men have done so. So Pepso-
dent offers the best argtmient I know for being
guided by actual dau.

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Chaffer Fifteen
SOME MAIL-ORDER EXPERIENCES

MOST of my advertising accounts were de-
veloped along the lines here described. To
go into details would be monotonous. But all my
life I have done a certain percentage of mail-order
advertising. It is not profitable from an agency
standpoint. It is difficult and time-consuming, and
it seldom runs to large amounts. But it is edu-
cational. It keeps one on his mettle. It fixes one's
viewpoint on cost and result. The ad.-writer learns
more from mail-order advertising than from any
other form.

So far as possible, in all my ad.-writing, I make
successful mail-order advertising my model and my
guide. That is proved advertising. It is known to
be profitable, else it would not continue. It is
usually the result of many traced experiments, so
it represents the best advertising yet found for that
line.

Mail-order advertising is a profitable study. Note
its economy of space. It is nearly always set in
small type. That is because thousands of tests have
proved larger type wasteftil. All pictures have a
selling value. None are used for decoration.

Take a profitable mail-order ad. and set it in
twice the space. Use larger type, more decorations

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or a border. You will get an ad. which looks more
attractive, but you will double the cost of replies
and sales.

This fact should be accepted, for this economy
principle, after thousands of tests on hundreds of
lines, has become practically universal. And it
proves that waste of space is folly in any line of ad-
vertising. That includes large type, or borders, or
pictures that don't help to sell. All ads. would be
set like good mail-order ads. if the same rigid tests
were applied.

That is the hardest fact for an ad.-writer to learn
or an advertiser to comprehend. The natural in-
stinct is to make the ad. attractive. One must
remember, however, ads. are not written to
amuse, but to sell. And to sell at the lowest cost
possible. Mail-order advertising, based on ac-
curate figures on cost and result, shows the best
ways known to do that.

An advertiser who once came to our agency was
selling a five-dollar article by mail. His replies
were costing 85 cents each, his sales about $2.. 50
each. The advertising was becoming unprofitable,
so he sought a way to lessen cost of sales. We pre-
pared an ad. which the advertiser rejected, it
seemed so unattractive. Another agency prepared
a larger, more alluring ad., which the advertiser
tried. But his cost per reply was $i4.2jo, on an
article which sold for $5 . Then he tried our ad. , and
the cost per reply was 41 cents. So we secured the

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advertising, and our cost per reply kept around 41
cents for years. We cut his old cost in two. And
that, on X5o,ooo replies per year, meant a very big
item to him. But countless advertisers without a
trace on cost are judging ads. by appearance. And
they are losing as heavily as this man did on an ad.
which cost him $14.10 per reply. That is why so
much money is wasted in advertising. People do
not know their costs, and they will not be guided
by those who do. So I have always done some mail*
order advertising to help me keep my feet on the
ground.

At one time I took up the advertising of house*
furnishings by mail on installments. While I was
doing this the business developed to $7,000,000 per
year. That taught me countless things. One learns
a great deal about human nature in selling goods on
credit by mail.

The problem does not end with the first sale to a
customer. The catalogs are expensive. Landing a
customer in this line costs money. A percentage of
the customers fail'to pay as agreed. So profit depends
on making the most of customers who are honest.
Selling them again and again. Mailing bulletins on
special offers. Watching accounts to sell something
more when payments are completed. Inducing one
customer to interest others.

One day when I called on this concern I noted a
big building next door. I asked about it, and they
told me it belonged to a firm that sold women's

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garments by mail on installments, just as we sold
furnishings. I said: **Why do you let such a con-
cern grow up next to you? Why don't you sell their
line?''

That led us to organize a similar concern. I
urged them to give it a woman's name. We se*
lected a capable, middle-aged woman and pictured
her in every ad. We had her sign the ads., and we
made our appeal from one woman to another.

These ads. did not mention installments. ] They
dealt with the subject of credit. They appealed to
young women who desired to appear at their best.
They pointed out what it meant in a woman's
career. Then this woman offered to help them out
by giving them six months to pay for spring clothes.

The offer was flattering, not humiliating. It
showed sympathy and understanding. The evident
desire was to serve. In reality our offers were the
same as those made by the people next door, but our
attitude was different. We made our six months'
credit seem like the thirty-day credit which richer
women get at their stores.

As a result, we dominated that field from the
start. Before long, the business next door was
closed. G)ld commercialism could not compete
with the atmosphere we created. Nor could boasted
benefaaions appeal like the offer of fair treatment
from one woman to another.

Just that change in presenution created an enor-

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mous new business. It also led to vastly increased
sales on furnishings.

Hundreds of thousands of women flocked to this
new line. Most of them paid as agreed and thus
established a credit. Then the president of the
house-furnishing concern wrote a letter to these
women somewhat to this effect : ' Today I met Mrs.

• She told me that you were a customer of hers,

that she had sold you on credit and that you had
paid as agreed. She says that you are one of her
valued customers, and that you are always welcome
to buy from her whatever you wish on time.

*1 want to make a like oflFer. We sell house-
furnishings here, and I am mailing you our catalog.
Disregard the terms in that catalog, which ask for a
payment in advance. I am willing to ship you
whatever you wish without any advance payment,

in view of what Mrs. tells me. Just order

what you want. Send no money whatever. Start
paying in a month if you find the articles satisfac*
tory, and take your time."

Such an offer was almost irresistible. These
women had ordered clothing on credit, wondering if
they would get it. They could hardly believe that
strangers would trust them. Then the president of
a big house*fumishing concern writes that he has
opened a credit account because of what the gar-
ment-maker told him. They are offered credit on
special terms, without any payment in advance.

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Any woman who receives such a flattering offer will
try to find some way to utilize it.

So with the garment-seller. She wrote like letters
to the house-furnishing customers. She told them
they had with her an open credit account. They
could order whatever they wished without sending
money. Just order the garments sent on approval.
And those house-furnishing customers by the thou-
sands bought women's garments from the woman
who wrote them so politely.

We started a like business on men's clothes. Then
by making a customer in one line a buyer of another
we multiplied the ordinary results. Nobody on a
single line could compete with such a combination.

Such are the ramifications of advertising. Sales*
manship-in-print, in principle, is just the same as
salesmanship-in-person. The store offers a bargain
to tempt people there. The object is to try to sell
other things, and right salesmanship will do it. An
ad.-writer must never forget that he is a simple
salesman, and the more he sells the better he will
prosper.

One more mail-order experience will illustrate
another phase. I took up the advertising of a con-
cern which for thirty years had sold garments for
women and children by mail on credit. This
field is well occupied. It has been profitable. The
annual sales of some concerns in this line run into
many millions.

All offer a costly catalog. Some ads. offer special

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bargains — ^perhaps certain articles at cost — to in-
duce people to write for the catalog. As a result,
the woman who writes for one catalog is apt to
write for three or four.

Then comes the main difficulty — ^the problem of
inducing women to buy from your catalog rather
than from others.

Say it costs 2.5 cents to induce a woman to write
for your catalog. The catalog, with its pictures in
colors, costs 35 cents at least. Thus you have an
investment of 60 cents in each inquirer. The results
depend on the sale per catalog.

The woman who writes to one advertiser in this
line usually writes to three or four. When she
comes to make a selection, she has four catalogs
before her. All present attractive appeals. The
one from which she orders depends largely on
chance or fancy.

One must recognize that. Your cost of pre-
senting that catalog to her is 60 cents, perhaps.
If four advertisers are presenting such catalogs to
her, the total cost is $^.4o. The average sale, as
per experience, is around $10. So the advertisers
combined are spending 13 per cent to make that
average sale.

The profit depends on swinging your way more
than the average sale. That was the problem
which brought those advertisers to me.

I devised this scheme: When a woman wrote for
our catalog I went to our card file and discovered

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164 MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

whether she was a new or old castomer. If she
was a new customer, the sales manager wrote her a
letter to this effect: *'We are very glad to have your
inquiry. We welcome new patrons to our fold. I
want to extend you that welcome in a practical
way. I inclose my card. On it is written instruc-
tions to refer your order to me. I want to send
with that order, with my compliments, a little
present for you. I will not say what it is, but I am
sure it will delight you."

To old customers he wrote this: '1 am glad to
again receive an inquiry from you. The whole
profit in our business is made by the customers who
stay with us year after year. It costs money to get
new customers, but the old ones who remain cost
us nothing. So I wish to offer you a token in
appreciation of the fact that you continue with us.
When you send your order, inclose this card of
mine. It instructs our people here to refer your
order to me. Then I will include a little gift to
show our appreciation."

What was the result? All inquirers for the
catalog, old or new customers, received that card.
It did not mention the gift, because curiosity
makes a stronger appeal than description. But
every inquirer had that card before her. If she
ordered £rom one particular catalog she could send
that card and receive the gift. So she tried her
best to order from that catalog. The sales per
catalog were thus enormously increased.

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One must be ourefdl in such o£Fers. The gift must
not be disappointing. It must be something every
woman wants. But any reasonable cost is in-
significant if it doubles the sale per catalog. That
means doubling the results of the advertising.

All such problems devolve on the advertising
man. He may write attractive ads. which gain
applause. But if those ads. fail to make sales at a
profit, he is wiped out very quickly. He may
bring inquiries at small cost, then let rival catalogs
outsell him. His usefulness is ended just the same.
Business is conducted to make money. A man
who can help it make money has boundless possi*
bilities. But the most brilliant efforts which
result in loss lead to permanent defeat.

This last line I mention led to another instructive
episode. There were six large advertisers in this
line of women's garments. Their chief aim was to
convince women that they undersold all others.

So they blazoned their claims to low prices.
Then they published guaranties to undersell any
other prices. Whoever found a better bargain
elsewhere could return her purchase.

There came a time when all were crying bargains
in the highest key. In a chorus of that kind, all
are on the same plane. All are as ineffective as
though they made no claims at all.

They presented me the problem of a more im-
pressive claim. I looked up their figures, and I
found that their average profit for years past had

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been less than 3 per cent. So I advertised that
profit — a profit of 3 per cent. I promised not to
exceed it. We were content with that profit, and
our prices were fixed on that basis. <

Here was one of the oldest mail-order concerns
in this line, one of the largest. The prices they
quoted on 3 per cent profit must be pretty close to
minimum. One could not expect to materially
decrease them. So those quotations, despite all
others' guaranties, were accepted as bottom prices.

That is another illustration of how actual figures
count. Claims are always discounted. Say,
"Lowest prices in existence" and people ignore
you. Many may make like claims. But say that
you sell at 3 per cent net profit, and most people
believe you. They do not expect you to lie in
regard to definite figures. They know you cannot
lie in the better publications.

Those are some of the plans which I evolved to
increase mail-order sales. They meant little to
me directly. Mail-order advertising is not worth
the effort from the standpoint of the ad.-writer.
But it kept me facing the fact that all sorts of
advertising is based on mail-order principles. We
must always sell our goods at a profit. We must
always outsell others to succeed. Any ad.-writer
who proceeds on any other theory is doomed to
quick defeat.

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Chapter Sixteen
REASONS FOR SUCCESS

NOW let mc try to summarize the reasons for
my success for the benefit of those who will
follow. By success I mean the parts I played in devel-
oping great advertising enterprises, most of which
continue. Advertising men are expected to do that.

In advertising we serve three interests, all of
them allied but distinct. First comes the publisher
who pays us our commissions. He pays to the
agency an average of 15 per cent on the amount of
the advertising. That is paid for expected service.
The best service we can render lies in the develop-
ment of new advertising opportunities. He expects
us to increase the general volume of advertising by
starting new projects or showing the way to
profitably increase the old.

Publishers learned that I served them well. I
wrote, for instance, the first ad. I ever read on
automobiles. I did much of the pioneer work in
that line, including the first ads. on Chalmers,
Hudson, and Overland. Publishers regarded me
as a leader in that development. The first important
tire advertising was the campaign which I evolved
on No-Rim-Cut tires for Goodyear. Its amazing
success proved to all tire-makers that this line
needed advertising.

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Tooth-paste advertising was rather insignificant
before Pcpsodent came into the field. That quick
success was one of the marvels of advertising, and
now many millions are spent every year to foster
dentifrices. No doubt the success of Puffed Wheat
and Puffed Rice gave impetus to cereal advertising.
The remarkable success of Palmolive created much
soap advertising.

My help in creating business for the magazines
and newspapers led the publishers to help me.
They have opened for me many fine oppommities,
just because they believed that my service in ad.-
writing would increase their revenues.

Another interest we serve as ad.-writers is the
advertising agency. Many of the best accounts in
agencies are the accounts developed from small
beginnings there. Nearly all the accounts I
handled were of that sort. Often much is at stake
on these advertising possibilities. A mistake may
ruin a fine prospect. Mediocre service may result
in a small account where a big one might have
been. That is why competent ad.-writers are paid
such large incomes.

In my case I started with Lord & Thomas at
$i,ooo per week. But we soon agreed that the
right plan was a commission basis. Then the
agency paid me only for service which proved
profiuble to them. On the other hand, I received
what I earned. Under that plan I earned in com*
missions as high as $185,000 in a year. All earned

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REASONS FOE SUCCESS 169

at a typewriter which I operated myself, without
a clerk or secretary, and much of it earned in the
woods. In addition I received a number of valuable
interests, some of them without cost, in the enter-
prises I helped to develop.

My commission grew until it became one-third
the whole agency commission. Mr. Lasker, during
all my years with him, let me write my own con-
tracts. He sometimes signed them without read-
ing, for he believed me fair. But the natural result
was that no accounts were turned over to me which
other men could handle. Most of my accounts
were developments from little test campaigns.

But I was doing more than serve myself. I was
doing my best to teach other copy men in the
agency. I held many meetings with them to discuss
the principles of copy. For that I received no pay.
Then I wrote numerous books to set down the
agency principles.

Because of those services Mr. Lasker finally made
me president of Lord & Thomas. Then, for certain
reasons, chairman of the board. When he went to
Washington to serve President Harding as chairman
of the Shipping Board I served for two more years
as president of the agency. Those two years cost
me considerable money. My commissions dropped
because of my other duties. I received no salary as
president, yet I spent much time with new clients.
I presided at a meeting of our leading men every
morning to help all our men who had problems.

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During those two years I accepted no account for
myself. By that I mean an account on which I
obtained commissions. I wanted no one to say
that I used my position to secure revenue for myself.
As a result, my own revenue dropped severely.
But Mr. Lasker always knew that his interests
would come ahead of mine. He trusted me im-
plicitly. At one time, to help compensate, he gave
me a check for $10,000 for writing Sciemific
Advertising.

That was one great factor in my career— the con-
fidence I engendered. That was due to my Scotch
ancestry. At one time Mr. Lasker made me a
trustee under his will. Again and again I refused
to accept from him more than I felt I earned. When
my contract called for one-third the commission I
refused to accept it on accounts where I did not
appear to be a vital factor. About the only dis-
agreements I had with Mr. Lasker referred to his
desire to overpay me.

That attitude I consider a vital factor in success.
An absolutely fair division. One on the crest of
the wave may over-play his hand for a little time,
but not for long. Business is money-making, and
associates will find a way to eliminate anyone who
claims too large a share.

The third element in advertising is the advertiser
himself. I put him third because he seems to come
third in my conception of advertising. We cannot
serve the publisher or the advertising agent without

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REASONS FOE SUCCESS 171

serving him. But the publisher pays our com-
missions, the advertising agent selects and employs
us. The advertiser who is a beginner makes a slight
speculation on us. Old advertisers who change
from one agency to another are not very valuable
clients. They have failed in their ambitions. In a
large percentage of cases the reason for failure
cannot be corrected. So they usually switch again.

The advertisers I value most are not those who
come with large appropriations. I could list
scores of such advertisers who have no prospect
of attaining their desires. Each succeeding agent
loses reputation and prestige when he attempts the
impossible.

The most valuable clients are those who come
to us with new opportunities in advertising. They
are many. But the opportunity consists of a test
campaign, costing under $5,000. The agency com-
mission on such a campaign is $750. The cost of
developing a test campaign rarely runs under
$10,000 if a competent man is employed. The men
in charge may spend weeks in reading and in
research.

The stake in such cases is largely with the
agency. The advertiser usually gets his mone}*^
back, whatever the outcome. The real suke i>
made by the agency.

Failure means that the advertiser loses a trifle,
the agency loses much. Success may mean millions
to the advertiser. To the agency it means 15 per

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cent commission on the advertising just so long u
he holds the advertiser's good will and approval.
So I feel no obligation to an advertiser who permits
me to make a test. Mine is the speculation.

That is why I place advertisers last in this
category. But on the success of the advertiser
depends everything else. We owe obligation to the
publishers who pay us our commissions. We owe
obligation to the agency which gives us our chance.
Our least obligation is to the advertiser, yet every-
thing depends on his attitude.

Success in advertising depends on these three
elements. Three interests must be satisfied, and
all of them are crying for profits. The only way
to please all of them is to profitably develop what
you undertake.

I have devoted myself to the advertiser. Through
his success must come my success with the others.
I forget the rest. The advertiser who fails in a
large way becomes forever a denouncer of adver-
tising. I know that failure is inevitable in a large
percentage of cases. So I never involve the
adventurer to any large extent before we are sure
of a profit. If he fails, the fault lies in the product
or conditions, not the advertising. His loss is
little or nothing. If he succeeds, his winnings may
run into millions.

How have I been able to win from this situation
so many great successes? Simply because I made
to many mistakes in a small way, and learned some-

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REASONS FOE SUCCBSS X73

thing from each. I made no mistake twice. Every
once in a while I developed some great advertising
principle. That endured.

That method cost me, beginning as I did in the
infancy of advertising, an enormous amount of
time. More time than other men are apt to devote
to this primitive experience. Much more time,
much more sacrifice, than I would want a son of
mine to devote. TJjat is the purpose of this auto-
biography. To help other men to start where I
ended.

Mr. A. D. Lasker, who is a very wise man, often
attributed much of my success to living among
simple people. He always wanted me to work in
the woods where I write this history, and I have
done so for two decades. Here most of the people
I talk with are my gardeners, their families, and
the village folk near by. I learn what they buy
and their reasons for buying. Those reasons would
surprise many who gain their impressions from
golf-club associates.

The reason is rarely economy. We hear people
of large incomes boast of their economies. They
are not humiliated by them. But where economy
is a necessity most people like to defy it. When
silk shirts cost $15 they became so common among
laboring men that other classes went to broadcloth.
Every shopgirl demands silk stockings. My ex-
perience on cosmetics proves that a low price on
perfumes, etc., does not appeal to the girl who

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174 ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ADVBETISINO

should economize. She demands what the "best
people" use.

Many people around me, working at small wages,
consider cost far less than I do. A woman who
does our washing, and who arrives in her own car,
has a fad for antiques. She picks up many pieces
of value — ^pieces we arc glad to buy from her when
she becomes involved.

The proudest people I know are the people who
work on my country place. Suggest a thing to
them because it is economical and you arouse
opposition. You hurt their pride. But direct your
appeal to those who do not consider cost and they
like to be included.

That is a single example of the things we learn
by contact from the people who form 95 per cent
of our customers. America is a land of equality.

Every campaign that I devise or write is aimed
at some individual member of this vast majority.
I do not consult managers and boards of directors.
Their viewpoint is nearly always distorted. I sub-
mit them to the simple folks around me who typify
America. They are our customers. Their reactions
are the only ones that count.

There is another field, ably occupied. It is
typified by the advertising of Cadillac cars. People
of small incomes can well be excluded. But those
are not the great advertising fields. I have confined
my appeals to the * 'common people,*' to the prod-
ucts which they buy. \

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Chaffer Seventeen
SCIENTIFIC ADVERTISING

THROUGH a book I wrote my name has
become comiected with "Scientific Adver-
tising/' That is, advertising based on fixed prin*
ciples and done according to fundamental laws. I
learned those principles through thirty-six years
of traced advertising. Through conducting cam-
paigns on some hundreds of di£Ferent lines. Through
comparing on some lines, by keyed returns, thou-
sands of pieces of copy. Always, since I sent out
my first thousand letters to the time when $5 ,000,000
yearly was being spent on my copy, I have had to
face records on cost and result. So I have naturally
proved out many fundamentals which should
always be applied.

I have little respect for most theories of adver-
tising, because they have not been proved. They
are based on limited experiences, on exceptional
conditions. Some lines seem to succeed on methods
of advertising which every traced return proves
impossible. The reasons for success have little to
do with the advertising. The line may have suc-
ceeded in spite of the advertising. Many un-
advertised lines become highly successful, because
of some wanted quality which people soon dis-
cover. Or because dealers are in some way induced

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to feature it. Or because of a name which in itself
tells an appealing story.

Cream of Wheat is an example. The name alone
tells the story. So with Spearmint Gum. All
successful gums have succeeded through fortunate
names. There is almost no story to tell. There
are no great distinctions. The very men who
succeeded with one name failed again, and again
with others. •^.-:> ^

Any conclusions drawn irom'^such experiences
are bound to lead others astray. The cases where
they apply are rare. Safe principles are evolved
only by those who know with reasonable exact-
ness what the advertising does, and who compare
results on many lines with thousands of pieces of
copy. Mail-order advertising gives the most
exact basis, but most advertising can be so con-
ducted as to give an approximate guide.

To apply scientific advertising one must recogni2e
that ads. are salesmen. One must compare them,
one by one, on a salesman's basis, and hold them
responsible for cost and result. To advertise
blindly teaches one nothing, and it usually leads
to the rocks.

I have described in this book some of the methods
by which we trace results. But we find that some
methods which succeed in one line cannot be
applied to another. We find that some methods
which are profitable are not one-fourth so effective
as others. So, regardless of principles, we must

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always experiment. But there are certain basic
laws so well established, so generally accepted by
those who know returns, that all who are wise
will recognize and generally employ them. I
intend in this chapter to deal with such principles
only.

Brilliant writing has no place in advertising. A
unique style takes attention from the subject. Any
apparent effort to sell creates corresponding re-
sistance. Persuasive ability arouses the fear of
over-influence. Anything which suggests an effort
to sell on other lines than merit and service is fatal.

One should be natural and simple. His language
should not be conspicuous. In fishing for buyers,
as in fishing for bass, one should not reveal the
hook.

Never try to show off. You are selling your
product, not yourself. Do nothing to cloud your
objective. Use the shortest words possible. Let
every phrase ring with sincerity.

From start to finish offer service. That is what
you are selling, that is all your prospect wants.
Weigh every sentence on that basis. Waste no
space, no money to any other end. I have seen
many an ad. killed by a single unfortunate phrase.
Usually a selfish phrase, indicating ulterior desires
which repel. Phrases like **Insist on this brand,"
** Avoid imitations,*' **Look out for substitution.*'
Such appeals have no good effect, and they indicate
a motive with which buyers cannot sympathize.

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Forget yourself entirely. Have in your mind a
typical prospect, interested enough to read about
your product. Keep that prospect before you.
Seek in every word to increase your good impression.
Say only what you think a good salesman should
say if that prospea stood before him. Then, if
you could sell in person, you could sell in print.

Do not boast. Not about your plant or your
output. Not about anything more interesting to
you than to your prospect. Boasting is repulsive.

Aim to get action. Your reader is perusing a
magazine or newspaper. She has paused because
your subject or your headline attracts her. But in
a moment she will be interested in her reading and
will usually forget you. In some way in your
climax inspire immediate action in those interested.
A coupon is the usual way. People cut it out.
They do not lay aside their magazine or newspaper,
but they clip the coupon to remind them of some^
thing they decide to do. A woman lays it on her
desk, a man slips it in his vest pocket. Then on
some convenient occasion it turns up for action.
It is sent in for a sample or for further information.
Then you have a chance to follow up that interest.

Countless tests have proved that coupons multiply
returns. I have seen many tests made by mail-order
houses, offering catalogs. Some ads. had coupons;
some did not. The difference in returns was
enormous.

People are dilatory. They defer aaion, then

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8CIBNTIPIC ADVBRTI8INO 179

forget. Many an advertiser loses in that way most
of his half-made converts. One cannot afford that.

There are other ways to get action. The * Veek"
sales have that in view. The retail offers which
apply to a ceruin day or hour. Limited offers of
every sort. Something to induce prompt action,
to avoid procrastination, is always an important
factor.

Frivolity has no place in advertising. Nor has
humor. Spending money is usually serious busi-
ness. This does not apply to amusement adver-
tising, but it does to all other forms. Money
represents life and work. It is highly respected.
To most people, spending money in one direction
means skimping in another. So money-spending
usually has a serious purpose. People want full
value. They want something worth more to them
than the same amount spent in other ways would
buy.

Such subjects should not be treated lightly. No
writer who really knows the average person will
ever treat it lightly. Money comes slowly and by
sacrifice. Few people have enough. The average
person is constantly choosing between one way
to spend and another. Appeal for money in a light-
some way and you will never get it. **Sunny Jim'*
proved that, so did "Spotless Town." So did
many others which are long forgotten. Nobody
can cite a permanent success built on frivolity.
People do not buy from clowns.

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Never seek to amuse. That is not the purpose
of advertising. People get their amusements in
the reading-matter columns. The only interest
you can offer profitably is something people want.

Do not try to compete with the stories or the
news columns, with the pictures or the cartoons
in their field. You may win attention, but not
valuable attention. Most of the people you
attraa in this way have no interest in your subject.

The ad.-columns and the reading matter have
their separate purposes. You cannot fool people
by any resemblance. None should attempt it if
he could. What does it profit an advertiser to
attract a reader who has no interest in his subject?
Any product worth advertising, if rightly pre-
sented, has more interest than a story. It means
economy, or help, or pleasure — perhaps for years
to come. Amusement is transient. Why sacrifice
your great appeal to secure a moment's fickle
attention?

Advertising means salesmanship to millions.
Because of its big field it is very expensive. In
national advertising the average cost is at least
$io per word. One must figure that. Make every
word count to the limit. Cut out every word which
is not worth that $io. Never repeat. This should
be done without stilted effects, but it must be done.

A salesman who wastes his time, who says use-
less things and repeats, may cost $i per hour.
But an ad. which does like things is wasting $io

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SCIENTIFIC ADVERTISING i8l

per word. And such wastes arc important. The
difference between profit and loss in advertising
is not usually very great. If success were easy, the
field would be overcrowded. Most success comes
through efficiency. Most failures are due to waste.

Do not waste space in any way. It is expensive.
Remember that all our ordinary reading is done in
8-point type. Most mail-order advertisers, pre-
senting something more interesting than ordinary
reading matter, have adopted 6-point type. Despite
these facts, countless advertisers present their
story in larger type. I do not know the theory.
Certainly the easiest type to read is the ordinary.
Anything unusual presents to us difficulties.

Advertisers struggle for attention. They strive
to demand it, not induce it. And big type is one
of their methods. Anyone who traces results can
quickly prove that oversize type does not pay.
Double your necessary space and you double your
cost. All mail-order advertising proves that, as
do all other forms of traced advertising. If your
story is interesting, people will read it in their
accustomed types. If it isn't interesting, they will
read it in no size of type. Or, if they do, their
reading will not help you.

On the same theory, many put their display lines
in all caps. They think they look more prominent.
But all our reading is done in upper-and-lower case
type. We are accustomed to that. When we meet
lines set in capitals, we have to study them out.

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This may not be a severe handicap, but it is always
a detriment. Why not follow the usual and
natural?

Then comes the principles connected with art in
advertising. The inclination is to use pictures.
The tendency has grown until many advertisers
pay from $1,500 to $4,000 per drawing.

No test that I know of proves such expense
profitable. Nor do I know of a case where colored
pictures paid better than black-and-white. People
use them more and more, but rarely on traced
advertising.

I am prepared to believe that on some lines, like
fruits and desserts, colored pictures may prove
profitable. But I know of no line as yet where, on
traced returns, they have warranted their extra
cost. And I have made a good many comparisons.
At one time a great advertising journal appealed
for proofs that colored advertising paid. But no
such actual proof has yet come to my attention.

That is a question for further experiment. Extra-
fine art work and colored art work have not yet
proved their advantages. If they do so in certain
lines, I doubt if ever the results can be applied to
all lines.

The incentive is not allied to salesmanship.
One cares little how a salesman dresses. We regard
over-dress as a fsiult. So with salesmanship-in-
print. I have never found a case where fine appear-
ance paid its cost in extra sales. And I know of no

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SCIENTIFIC ADVBRTISINO 183

one else who has done so* My idea is that fine art
work, like fine language, simply makes buyers
wary.

Another principle' taught by experience is that
ads. should tell the full story. People do not read
ads. in series. The advertiser who today attracts
them may not again get attention for months. So,
when you get a reading, present all your arguments.
In an advertising campaign, we find facts which
appeal, and we retain them. We find other facts
which don't appeal, and we drop them. We find
these things out by featuring our various claims
in headlines. We find that one lead brings a great
deal of interest, while another brings little or
none. So we gauge our appeals accordingly.

Some will buy for one reason, some for another.
But all appeals which prove themselves important
should be included in every ad. Otherwise, our
most convincing arguments fail to reach our in-
terested readers.

We cannot expect people to read our ads. again
and again. Our subject attracts them, and they
give us brief attention. It is up to us, then, to
convince them or forever lose their interest. They
will not read another ad. of ours if we fail to
present in an enticing way something they desire.

We should not lose our opportunity. Every ad.
should include whatever we have found appealing
to any considerable class.

Then there are different ways of suting things.

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Some are impressive, some are not. Saperlative
claims do not count. To say that something is
**The best in t the world'* makes no impression
whatever. That is an expected claim. The reader
may not blame us for exaggeration, but we lose
much of his respect. He naturally minimizes
whatever else we may say.

When we say such things as, *'The best product
in existence/* *'The supreme creation of its kind/'
we may arouse only a smile at our frailties. No
resentment may be engendered. But whatever
else we say is discounted.

People are pretty well educated to the belief
that advertising must tell the truth. They know
that we cannot, in the better mediums, deliberately
mislead them. But they do not regard superlatives
as misleading, because they never are.

On the other hand, when you state actual figures,
definite facts, they accept them at par. Such
definite sutements are either faas or lies, and
people do not expect that repuuble people or
concerns will lie.

Give actual figures, state definite facts. Take
the tungsten lamp as an example. Say that it
gives more light than other lamps, and people are
but mildly impressed. Say that it gives m times
the light of carbon lamps, and people will realize
that you have made actual comparisons. They
will accept your claims at par.

So in everything. Indefinite claims leave in-

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SCIENTIFIC ADVERTISING 183

definite impressions, and most of them are weak.
But definite claims get full credit and value. The
reader must either decide you correct or decide
that you are lying. And the latter supposition is
unusual.

1 Never advertise negatively. Always present the
attractive side, not^the offensive side of a subject.
Do not picture or feature ills. The people you
appeal to have enough. Show and feature the
happier results which come from your products
or methods.

', People are seeking happiness, safety, beauty, and
content. Then show them the way. Picture happy
people, not the unfortunate. Tell of what comes
from right methods, not what results from the
wrong. For instance, no tooth-paste manufacturer
ever made an impression by picturing dingy teeth.
Or by talking decay and pyorrhea. The successes
have been made by featuring the attractive sides.

All experience in advertising proves that people
will do little to prevent troubles. They do not
cross bridges in advance. They will do anything
to cure troubles which exist, but legitimate adver-
tising has little scope there. All are seeking
advantages, improvements, new ways to satisfy
desires. They are not inclined to anticipate
disasters. Those who have met misfortune form
in most lines a percentage too small to consider.

There are many things in advertising too costly
to attempt. One must avoid them,>.else he will

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become disheartened. An ointment, for instance,
or a germicide, a treatment for asthma or hay
fever, a rub for rheumatism.

On some such things one appeals to a small
percentage. The cost of reaching them in mediums
of universal circulation is excessive. It cannot
come back for decades. On others, the cost of
securing a customer is many years* return from a
customer. Repeat sales are too far apart.

I know many products which every home should
have. The reasons are convincing. A large per-
centage of homes can be sold on them, but a single
purchase lasts for months and sometimes years.
The cost of securing a customer far exceeds the
first-sale profit. Further sales and profits are long
deferred. The advertiser and the advertising man
become discouraged long before the tide can turn.

The world is full of such things. Things that
appeal to the i per cent. Things that do not
repeat until funds and patience are exhausted. I
have seen many men of great ability discouraged
by such underukings.

Another thing to learn exactly is what sort of
headline most appeals. Again and again I have
multiplied results from an ad. by eight or ten by
a simple change in headline.

A headline is intended to salute the people you
desire to reach. It is just like a bell-boy in a hotel
calling for Mr. Jones. Here is a message for him.
Or like the heading on a news article. All of us

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SCIBNTIFIC ABVBRTI8INO 187

depend on headlines to point out what we desire
to read.

Consider your ordinary readers. You have pre-
sented to you, perhaps a hundred times what you
have time to peruse. You select your reading by
the headings. So it is in ads.

We must discover what appeals are most im-
pressive. We learn that by keyed tests, by com-
paring one headline with another. We find that
one sort of headline appeals to 13 per cent of our
prospects, and another to 50 per cent. We must
use them accordingly.

Any other method involves tremendous waste.
Anyone can quickly prove that if he uses keyed
returns. Good ads. on any line cannot vary greatly.
They must be complete, and completeness means
similarity. The great difference lies in the headline.
One attracts a certain percentage, another ten
times as many. One must find that out if he ex-
pects his advertising to appeal to a profitable
audience.

One person presents a subject in a way to flatter,
another in a way to humiliate. One bases his
claims on self-interest, another on service. One
tries to sell, another tries to please. These things
all alter one's attitude of mind, and that is what
leads to decision.

But psychology goes further. It recognizes
pride and individuality. One must know how to
appeal to those desires. These things can hardly

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l88 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISING

be taught. They come through kindly instincts,
through love and understanding, through desires
to please and serve. No man out of tune with his
fellows can be taught them.

The best school I know is canvassing, going
from home to home. Many great ad.-writers
spend half their time in that. They learn by per*
sonal contacts what wins and what repulses.
Then they apply their findings to appeals in print.

These factors must all be considered. They form
the foundation of advertising. Suppose it were
diflferent. Anyone who can write a fair letter can
write a fair ad. Suppose that ordinary presenta-
tions, without regard to the subject, could sell
lines at a profit. There would be no room in ad.-
writing for men of ambition.

But such things can*t be done. The line is
fiercely competitive. Every ad. is surrounded by
countless appeals. Every eflFort involves much
expense. The man who wins out and survives does
so only because of superior science and strategy.
He must know more, must be better grounded,
must be shrewder than his rivals. The only way
to that end is to start with fixed principles, proved
by decades of experience, from which you never
swerve.

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Chaffer Eighteen
MY GREAT MISTAKE

THE day before Christinas, in the year I made
my initial success in selling carpet sweepers
by letters, Mr. M. R. Bissell, president of the
company, called me to his office. He said: "I have
some advice to give you. You have many of the
qualifications which make for success, including
the selling instinct. You are too good a man to
work for me. You shall start out for yourself, as
I did."

He told me something of his history. How he
had refused every salary oflfer, every safe anchorage,
and struggled alone. And how as a result he had
finally arrived on the road to fortune.

He ended by saying: '1 am selfish enough to want
you to stay here. If you do, your salary will be
much increased next year. But I am fair enough to
advise you not to stay. Don't let some one else
glean the chief profits from your hard work and
your talent."

My Scotch conservatism led me to stay. It was
my great mistake. Soon after that I married, and
any venture of my own became increasingly
difficult. Thus I tied myself to a lifetime of service
as an employee.

I watched some of my coworkers stan out for

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themselves, krgely on lines I had taught them.
Fred Macey started selling furniture by mail. In
a few months he had an office force of ninety to
handle the business he developed. Then he founded
the Fred Macey Company which exists today.
A. W. Shaw started building office systems. Then
he founded the magazine SySem^ which has been
an enormous success. My roommate, E. H. Stafford,
left his position to manufacture school furniture,
and built up the E. H. Stafford Company. I feel
now, as then, that I was fully as well equipped as
they were, save with courage. I have been called
on to do bigger things for others than they have
done for themselves. But I always envied their
independence which I spent thirty-five years to
atuin.

I have helped a good many men to wealth and
position. In many cases — ^in most cases — they
started practically without money. The adver-
tising had to earn its way. It was the chief fsictor
in the business, often the only reason for success.
In most mail*order lines that is evident. It is true
in many other lines. It is not difficult to make a
breakfast food, a tooth paste, medicine, soap, or
cleanser. Most advertisers at the start employ
others to make them. Salesmen can aid but little.
They are usually not employed. About everything
depends on the advertising.

I have told how such products are tested out,
in a small way at the start. The advertising man

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MT O&BAT MISTAKE 191

docs ninc-tcnths of the work. The owner of the
trade-mark ventures little or nothing. If the test
falls down, the advertising man is the main loser.
He has spent his time and talents. If the test suc-
ceeds and the advertising extends, the advertising
man gets a commission on the expenditures. The
profits go to others. The advertising man, because
he is anonjrmous, fails to even get due credit.

The business grows, and the owners grow with
it, in wealth and in pride. As it grows, the adver-
tising man becomes less and less important. The
business acquires a momentum. The time comes
when even mediocre advertising will keep it going
upward. Advertising which could never have
started it.

The advertising man clings to the methods he
established. He fears to change. As a matter of
fact, it is seldom wise to change. The best way
to win new customers is usually the way that won
millions. But the advertising becomes monotonous
to the men who read every ad. They always come
to want something new. So the man who builds
a big advertising account is pretty sure to lose it,
soon or late. To keep up his volume and his earn-
ings he must always be starting new ventures.

I gradually came to specialize on proprieuries
and foods, on products which people buy over and
over. They offer the great opportunities in adver-
tising. One^ale articles are not so inviting. The
profit must be made on that sale. Articles of that

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191 MY LIFB IN ADVBRTISINO

kind appeal to the minority. The advertising
man's great profits come from products which
appeal to nearly every home, and which must be
advertised forever. Food products, for instance,
which mothers teach their children to use, and
which never should go out of favor.

But such products must be developed. The
process is often slow. The advertising man has
the major share of the work and responsibility.
When he works for others, as I worked for thirty-
five years, he gets no fair share of the profits. And
he rarely becomes a permanent factor, so far as his
work is concerned.

I have often figured what I would have made
had I invested just my commissions in the stock
of enterprises which I fostered. The amount runs
into many millions. The real reason I did not is
the fact that I never had sufficient confidence in
myself. But I pretended to ignore commercialism.
My creative work lay in a higher sphere. So for
many years I watched others make money, while
I gained mainly a modicum of fame.

An ambitious wife was the one who woke me
from that lethargy. She had desires for which
money counted more than fame. She pointed out
how those who employed me always gained the
advantage in a monetary way.

Finally I considered her viewpoint, and after
many years of working for others I started to work
for myself. I have already made more by sharing

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MY O&BAT MISTAKE 193

the profits of my creations than I ever made by
working on commission.

One of my first ventures was in Pepsodent tooth
paste. I bought a share in that, for which I paid
$13,000. It paid me some $xoo,ooo in dividends,
then I sold the stock for $500,000.

Then I decided, at a time in life when most men
wish to retire, that I would do what Mr. Bissell
advised me to do when I was twenty-one. I would
work for myself, start my own enterprises, and
win or fail with them.

I had many ideas in mind. The first one I started
was a cosmetic business. I had studied statistics
on that line. I learned that women spent $700,-
000,000. yearly on cosmetics — ^morc than they
spent on all other advertised lines combined. I
prepared a line of cosmetics, but I had no theory.
The field was overcrowded. Leading dealers in
cosmetics had thousands of kinds on their shelves.
Scores of new makers came every week to solicit
them. No line dominated. When a woman became
converted to one product, and went to a store to
get it, she faced a dozen demonstrators who tried
to sell other lines.

I sent men to Paris and Vienna to secure some-
thing unique, some claims to give me an advantage.
But they found none. So I decided to abandon
this line.

Just at that time Edna Wallace Hopper played
an engagement in Chicago. One morning Mandel

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194 ^^ UFB IN ADVERTISING

Brothers announced in the papers that she would
appear in person that afternoon in their beauty
department on the fourth floor. I sent an emissary
there, and she found the floor crowded. Every
other department on the floor had to yield its space
to accommodate the women who flocked to see
Miss Hopper.

Edna Wallace Hopper had attained a grand-
mother's age. Many of the older women had seen
her in her prime, back in the early 'nineties. She
met them looking like a girl of nineteen, with
hair, figure, and complexion like a debutante's.
Every woman, of course, was anxious to learn the
secrets of her youth and beauty.

The manager of Mandels advised her to call on
me. He said: **You should capiulize that £une
of yours. You should teach other women to do
what you have done."

The next day Edtia Wallace Hopper called on
me. She brought with her countless articles which
had been published about her. Also many pages
she had written herself on this subject of youth
extension.

If That day I found my theory. Here was a woman,
the most talked-about woman in America. A
woman who had made herself a famous beauty
thirty-five years ago. A woman who had kept
that beauty to a grand old age. And all through
beauty helps she had searched the whole world
to discover.

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MT GREAT MISTAKE 195

I made a contract with her. She was to give
me her formulas, her name, and prestige. I was to
prepare those products for other women, exactly
as she used them. She had spent fortunes to secure
those formulas. She was the most prominent
example living of what beauty helps could do.
On those lines we have founded a large cosmetic
business. «^^

We have never had a salesman. We have never^
asked a dealer to buy. We have confined our
efforts to the consumer. We have tried to win
women's respect for the research Miss Hopper has
conducted. Then we have let those women induce
dealers to supply them. ^

A great many makers, starting out, try to sell
their products two and three times over. They
try to sell the wholesaler, and the wholesaler
today wants some 10 per cent. He can do nothing
for us save to fill the orders that we bring. He
quotes his business expense, largely made up of
efforts to get business from his competitors. He
wants us to pay our share, though it matters not
in the slightest to us from whom a dealer buys.
His salesmen can do nothing for us.

The retailer tries to profit to the utmost from
every new adventurer. Send a salesman to him,
and he is bound to demand some advantage. He
wants a dozen free in ten, or some such extra profit.

Any such concession is a handicap, hard to over-
come. Your whole success depends on the con-

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196 ^^J4X-LIFE IN ADVBRTI8INO

sumer. \ If the consumer is induced to demand
what you offer, the dealer will obtain it. If the
dealer wants it, the wholesaler will supply it, j

Many of the wrecks in advertising come m)m
trying to sell things over and over. One first sells
to the jobber, and he demands a large percentage.
Then he tries to sell to the retailer. He wants free
goods and extra margins. Yet all the results
depend on the consumer. All your wholesale
demand, all your retail demand, depends on your
influence with the consumer.

Never forget that. Jobbers and retailers have
their own brands. What trade they can influence
is never directed toward products you control.
They are not trying to give you a whip-hold. If
they can influence sales, they make four times as
much on products of their own.

In that fact lies one of the most pitiful phases in
advertising adventures. The advertiser spends his
money to convert consumers. Then he pays sales-
men to sell his goods to jobbers and to retailers.
He gives concessions and inducements, just to get
them to supply the demand he creates. As a result,
there is little left for him. And he must pay all
the expenses.

One can never win out in that way. It is like a
man who tries to do business with excessive over-
head. He bears the expense, the risk, and the
effort, and his profits are dissipated.

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MY ORBAT MI8TAKB 197

Today the Edna Wallace Hopper line embraces
twenty-three products. Each is a formula Miss
Hopper has discovered. When a woman tries one
of them she desires to try the rest. The converts
to Miss Hopper are converts to her line. So our
average in this line is $1.78 per sale. That as com-
pared with 50 cents for a tooth paste, 35 cents for a
shaving cream, 10 cents for a soap, etc. Our profit
on what we sell from our advertising would never
pay the cost. But one thing sells another. That
is so in many lines. The whole profit comes in
auxiliaries.

This is one of many enterprises I have started in
this new regime. Some will fail, but the failures
will cost us a trifle. Had I failed for the other
fellow they would have cost just as much. The
successes will win millions.

So that is my future. Instead of confining myself
to building businesses for others on a temporary
commission, I have started for myself the enter*
prises which seem to promise profit. If even one
turns out as scores have turned out under my
direction, it will win me more than I ever won
from writing. ^^

But this is not, as I well realize, good advice to 1
the majority. The average man should work '
under direction. Success depends on many qualities,
of which he has but few. My present adventure
is made after decades of working in cooperation*

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198 MY LIPB IN ADVB&TI8INO

Let those who can deduce from this ezperience
suggestion and direction. I have tried to point
out the only ways to success in advertising. Those
ways lead in many directions. Let each one
decide what is best.

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Chapter Nineteen
SOME THINGS PERSONAL

AS THIS is a record of success in my par-
ticular line of endeavor, and an urge to
others, it may be well to set down something
about my private life, my idiosyncrasies, habits,
and desires as these are related to what I have
gained by success.

I have always been an addict to work. I love
work as other men love play. It is both my
occupation and my recreation. As a boy, the
necessity for self-support after school hours kept
me from the playgrounds. As a man, my desire to
learn all that I could about salesmanship has kept
me from wasting time. The only game I ever
learned is business. To me it has been all-absorbing.
I have never played baseball, golf, or tennis. My
mother's Scotch Presbyterianism prohibited danc-
ing, cards, and theaters, and I have never in later
years learned to enjoy them. I have owned auto-
mobiles since their earliest introduction, but I
rarely drive, myself.

My chief philanthropy has been teaching boys
and men to love work. I have long been interested
in an association which takes delinquent boys
from the juvenile courts and puts them to work on
a farm. It has saved many hundreds of boys in

>99

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lOO MY LIFB IN ADVERTISING

that wEy. In going to Chicago from my country
home I arrive at six o'clock in the morning. For
years I went inmiediately to Grant Park where
scores of tramps were sleeping on newspapers, and
I spent an hour or more in trying to interest them
in work. I am a director of the Volunteers of
America, and my particular interest is in prison
work. I have accompanied Maud Ballington
Booth in her lectures in Joliet prison. I have
helped to support Hope House in Chicago, a
temporary home for the prisoners we get out on
parole. My principal contribudon to that effort
has been a Sunday afternoon lecture on '*The Joy
ofWork.*'

I have written magazine articles to argue that
both boys and girls should work. I have ever
insisted that my unmarried sister keep at work as
I do, for the sake of her happiness. She is still
teaching in the high schools of Grand Rapids. I
sent one of my daughters to work on the stage.
The other one married soon after graduation from
Smith College. She went to work as a mother,
then as president of women's clubs — ^two at one
time. Then to some extent as a lecturer. My wife
works some fourteen hours a day. She is our chief
gardener, and as such has developed the finest
flower gardens in Michigan. Hundreds of people
from near and far come to view them every summer.
She manages a large country home which is always
filled with guests. We figure that we serve here

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SOME THINGS PERSONAL tox^

3,500 breakfasts in a summer season. She is also
a musician, devoting to her practice some six
hours a day. In Chicago she is famous as a charity
worker.

When we had unmarried daughters our house was
filled with young men on vacation. I let them
know that I did not approve of their idleness. My
arguments sent many of them to work in their
college vacations, acquiring habits to aid their
careers, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that
in that way I helped many of them to success.
They found that pocketing orders was more fun
than pocketing balls. That winning a contract
was better than winning a trophy.

My confinement to business has not been due to
any love of money or fame. I have not even had a
conscious desire to succeed. Money means nothing
to me, save that my Scotch instinct rebels at waste.
I do not even want to leave it to my children.
They already have what is good for them. I want
their husbands to have the joy that I had, of
making their own success, so I do not deprive
them of any incentive.

I long lived in utter poverty where hunger and
I were pals. When I entered business I had to miss
two meals a week to pay my laundry bills. I have
also lived in luxury, spending as high as $140,000
a year. It has made little difference to me. I was
as happy in one condition as the other. I do not
think we can go back to humble conditions without

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Id MT LI7B IN ADVS&TI8INO

pangs, bat I am sure that men can be as hMppy m
one plateau as another.

The happiest man I know is a neighbor of mine
who never made more than $1x5 per month. Oat
of that he saved enoagh to baild six small hoases
which he rents. Then he retired on the income.
He spends his summers on my lake, working in his
g^dens; his winters in Florida. I often go down
to his cottage for a lesson in content.

Until the income tax was established I kept no
record of my earnings. Their volume meant
nothing to me. Their ups and downs did not affect
me in the least. My wife collects all my revenues
and pays all the bills. I never sign a check. I
have not the slightest idea of the money invested
in my country place or the cost of any item. Know-
ing these costs would make me unhappy, because
of something mother bred in me. But the general
realization that these things cost much money does
not affect me at all.

In my personal expenses I am very economical.
I have always dressed rather shabbily. Until my
wife rebelled I wore ready-made clothes. Now I
dodge expensive tailors. At the present writing I
have not had a new suit in two years. My limit
on shoes is $6.50. When I go to a hotel I order in
a modest way.

This is all recited to indicate that my incentive
for work was not money. Nor was it fame or
position. I care nothing for either out here in the

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60MB THINGS PERSONAL 103

woods among simple people where I have built
my home. All things are handicaps which in any
way seem to place me above my fellows. Here in
the country we all meet on equality.
» I have worked for the fun of working and be-
cause work became a habit with me. Then later
in business because I realized that somebody had
to do a deal of hard work to get advertising out
of its swaddling clothes.

Lord & Thomas first offered me a position when
I was twenty-five, living in Grand Rapids. I went
to Chicago to discuss the opportunity with the
founders of the business. The agency had no
copy-writers then. It was largely a brokerage
business, bidding against other agencies on a fixed
amount of space. The advertisers prepared their
own ads. and sent electrotypes. The profitable
part of the business was in developing schemes to
get advertisers to spend money. The proposition
was made to me because I had proved myself a
scheme man in the Bissell Gurpet Sweeper Company.
There was no thought of profit to the advertiser.

I was young and inexperienced, but I had sense
enough to realize that such ideas of advertising
could not go far. My training had already taught
me the necessity for traceable results. So I declined
the proposition of Lord & Thomas, with its 60
per cent increase in salary, and continued my
struggles to sell products at a profit. It was sixteen

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Z04 MT LIFB IN ADVB&TISXNO

yours thereafter when Lord & Thoauis, under
different auspices, again invited me to join them.

What have I gained by these many years of ex-
ceptional application? I have gained what others
gain by medical research, by spending their lives
in a laboratory. My life work has been research
in advertising. Now I have the privilege of setting
down my findings for the men who follow me. I
have the hope that the record will save to many
the misukes of the pioneers and the years that I
spent to correct them. I have gained what
Thomas A. Edison has gained by his twenty hours
a day — ^the satisfaction of knowing that I have
discovered some enduring principles.

Many argue that advertising is changing, that
the times call for something new. Certainly the
tempo of life in America is changing. Fads,
fancies, and desires change like a kaleidoscope.
Certain styles in advertising are changing. It is
and always has been necessary to give to every
campaign a different key-note. Imitators never
succeed. But human nature does not change. The
principles set down in this book are as enduring
as the Alps.

Advertising is far more difficult than it used
to be because the cost is higher and there is so
much able competition. But every new difficulty
increases the necessity for scientific advertising.

As I write this I look down a beautiful lake to
which I first came as a boy of six. At the end is a

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SOME THINGS PERSONAL 105

vilkgc, once a lumbering town, where my grand-
father was the Baptist minister. Within my view
are the hills which I plowed as a boy, still clothed
with the vineyards which I picked. Here my
uncle had a fruit farm which became my home.
Here I worked every summer and some winters
until I went into business. Here reside still some
of my boyhood playmates.

Down there is a point which used to have a dock.
From that dock I used to load as high as 1,800
baskets of peaches in a day. From that dock I
took the boat one night at the age of eighteen,
tears streaming down my cheeks, to enter the
world of business. Many hard years went by
before I saw this boyhood home again.

Then the homing instinct brought me back. I
bought a bluff of virgin forest which I had always
loved as a boy, and named it Pineycrest. There
I built my home which for seventeen years I have
enlarged and developed into a paradise. A half-
mile of flower gardens extend into the lake. The
lawns are always alive with delightful friends,
relatives, and grandchildren.

Here I do what I love to do in beautiful surround-
ings. Here a mile apart are the contrasts to show
what I have gained by my efforts. Here remain
some who never dared, to show me what might
have been. Here is my motherland, here my
tabernacle, here my home.

I am sure that no man has gained more from life

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2jo6 my lipb in advertising

than I have — ^more of true happiness and content.
I ttace that to the love of simple things, of common
people, which made my success in advertising.

Here at our week-end parties I meet many suc-
cessful men in a most intimate way. I envy none
of them. The happiest are those who live closest
to nature, an essential to advertising success. So
I conclude that this vocation, depending as it does
on love and knowledge of the masses, offers many
rewards beyond money.

Thb Entd

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The following
pages contain
announcements
and descriptions
of other recent
Harper books.

t.M

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SALES ADMINISTRATION

By WALTER S. HAYWARD
"Should prove of value to sales executives or those in
diaige of adjtisting their product to the market demand.
Covers all phases oif selliii? problems, induding handling
of the seUing foroe. *'^Babsim Statistical Bureau

SCIENTIFIC MARKETING
MANAGEMENT

By PERCIVAL WHITE
"If we could choose only three books on bushiess man-
agement, 'Sdenttfic Marketing Management' would be
one of them. Mr. White never could have written as
he has were it not for the fact that he has lived his
subject, both in personally conducted enterprises and
as a manaser and consultant in various miportant

Stuart D. Cowan,
Cowanh Dtm^tty 6f Dm^, New York, N. 7.

THE MEASUREMENT OF
ADVERTISING EFFECTS

By Gborgb Burton Hotchkiss and Richasd B.

Frankbn.
This book contains a summary of facts regardmg the
public's knowledge of and familiarity with nationally
advertised names, products and brands^ and a detailed
analysis of the influences which are chiefly responsibls
for establishing this familiarity.

HOW TO WIN AN ARGUMENT

By RiCHAJU) C. BosDBM and Alvik C. Bussb

AsHslaia Prcf€Ssors of BnOish and PMU Sp€akini,
New YorkVfUwersUy

"I do not believe I have ever seen a better book on
salesmanship." — ^Allen Sinsheimer, Editor of the JVo-
Honal Retail Clothier.

"Of tremendous value to ninety out of a hundred ss*
ecutives. "-—Charles W. Hoyt.

Harper y Brothers
Publishers Since 1817 New York

T-xOI

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HARPER BUSINESS BOOKS |

ADVERTISING COPY

By Gbo&ob 6. Hotchkiss, M^

Cbainnm of the Department of Adveitiiiiig and Markednc^

New York Univertity

This fint complete treatite on the writing of adTerdtin^ copy
•hows how to write advertisements that combine hteraiy
merit and pulling power. There are a large number of practi-
cal illustrations from actual advertisements.

CONSTRUCTIVE SALESMANSHIP

By John A. Stbvbnson
Second Vice President of the £(^uitable Life Assurance Society
oftheUmted States

An actual record of the methods experienced salesmen haw
used in securing prospects, obuining the interview and ^tdnc
the order. They are not "trick ways" of making individual
•ales, but are the tried methods of building a permanent
dientde.

COOPERATIVE ADVERTISING BY
COMPETITORS

By Hugh £. Achbw

This book sets forth the achievements of trade associations
and community organixarions in forwarding group advertising
by compedtors and bjr local communities. The reader is
shown how such campaigns may be organized and the te^
nique used in carrying them out.

SCIENTIFIC SELLING AND
ADVERTISING

By Arthue Dunn

The necessaiy points of successful salesmanship are here set
forth on a scientific basis for the aid of ad vertising men, sales
managers, manufacturers, merchants. The author has sold
millions of dollars' worth of securides, drilled and educated
talesmen, and conducted larg^ sales orgamaadona.

Harper flf Brothers
FublUhmri Sinc% 1817 New York, N. Y.

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I HARPER BUSINESS BGDKS

SECURITY SPECULATION—
The Dazzling Adventure

By Laukbncb H. Sloan
'' Contaios much that will interest the more oooservatfw
■peculator who is something more than an amateur, and
who regards the occasional realization of profits and the
avoidance of unnecessary^ losses as a sound investment
policy." — ^Bdgar L. Smith, Author ci Common Stocks
as Long Term Inoestments,

INDUSTRIAL CREDITS

By Robert Young
*' About half the book is discussion, arranged in a verf
workmanlike manner, and the other half consists of
credit problems. It is hard to conceive of a credit
manager who would not benefit by wrestling with some
or all of these problems, working out solutions and
discussing the results with his associates. "^rA« CrsdU
MofMy.

HOW TO GET AHEAD
FINANCIALLY

By William A. Schnbdlek
"Written by one who has had practical experience in
giving advice on personal finance, this book tells, in
addition to the customary explanation of the remark-
able powers of compound interest, how to invest one's
savings, when to bmow to get ahead, etc " — Barron*s.

BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT
FORECASTING

By Ray Vancb
*n3y a master of the work of gathering and analysing
statistics! " — InoesHng For Profit.
A practical book for practical men — the key to wise
decisions on when to buy and sell securities and raw
materials.

Harper ^
Publishers Since 1817

Brothers

New York

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Biography and Memoirs

JOHN WANAMAKER
Bt HsmBBKT Adams Gibbous

''A oomct pemectave of the man and his work .... has been
adnixably supplied in a new and adequate biography. It may be said
at the outset that the author was not only peoiharly fitted for his
task, he has per f ormed it with distinction. UnderBtanimig his sul^ect,
and familiar with the scenes of his businesB and dvic life, he has writtea
with facility and authority."— PJlOo^pMs FubUc Udgfir.

THROUGH MANY WINDOWS
Bt Hblbn Woodwabd

''Not oniy the epic of a woman's battles in New Yoik for her phos
in the sun, but it is a study in business psycholoqr, the best, the ladest
and the frankest I have ever read/' — ^fSenjamin cle Casseres, Nem York
BMrnng PoU. "Bvety American ought to read it," Dorothy Canfidd

A MUSICIAN AND HIS WIPB
Bt Mbs. Rbginald db Kovbn

"The author has lived among the great folk of the world, and has
written in a way to give the raider a glimpse not only of herself and
her illustrious husband but of their times. This we beueve is the ideal
autobiographical method and that pursued by autobic«raphers who
have lived. Mrs. de Koven is a charming taconteur.''---ica(i«ai/ iMdir.

MY LIFE AND TIMES
Bt Jbroicb E. Jbromb

Of this fascinating story of the life of the famous author of "The
Ptissing of the Third Floor Back" and "Three Men m a Boat" Richard
Le GaUienne says: "This very companionable book of memories will
the more endear him to his many friends. It is full 6L humanity, cood
sense and good fun, and it is admirably written with the ease of a bom
cdMCfMir."

PORTRAITS AND PORTENTS
Bt a. G. Gaidinbb

The distinguished author of "War Lords" and "Priests, Prophets
and Kings" here presents a striking series of pictures of contemporarr
celebrities. The editor for nearly twenty years of the London Dauj
NewSf A. G. Gardiner has had tmusual opportunities for intimate
contacts with leaders of opinion and action, xiot only in England, but
aJl over the world.

HARPER ft BROTHERS
PiMishers Since JS17 NewYoric

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RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
TOvi^^ 202 Main Library

LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE

2 :

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AIL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS

DUE AS STAMPED BELOW

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